Reanimation Evangelion
by Surj
Summary: Third Impact has come and passed. It was supposed to mark the end of Shinji Ikari's pain from the world and everyone in it. However, Shinji is still not ready. He must be prepared for the true war to come. SxRxAx?
1. Rectifying Erewhile

Author's notes: I don't own Evangelion yadda yadda yadda.

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* * *

****Saturday**

Morning. The start of a new day. The dawning sun gently rose from the cover of the dark mountains and its bright light silently crept over the small city of Musashino, bathing it in an orange aurora. A young boy awoke from the sun glinting on his face as his silent alarm. His iris contracted around the pupil, regulating the amount of light entering his eyes. The dimly-lit room he was in slowly came into focus. Was it a dream? He wondered. He jumped out of bed, threw back the curtains and pushed open his window. Squinting his eyes from the sun, he took in the view that was before him.

Mountains, houses, small buildings…It was all familiar to him. He began rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. After verifying that the things he was seeing were not an illusion, he quickly ran back into his room, up to the small trash can in the corner and viewed its contents. Sure enough, there were shreds of paper and on top of those shreds, lay an ID card labeled with his name in bold, black letters: Shinji Ikari

Shinji stared at the trash can, lost in thought for what seemed like hours. In the end he gave a heavy sigh and began getting ready for the day.

Making his way down the dimly-lit hallway, Shinji stopped short in front of the door next to his room. Curios, he slowly and quietly turned the knob. Peeking inside, he blinked in surprise as there was no one in the room. The bed was made, the curtains were drawn open and a faint aroma of men's cologne lingered in the air. It was then that he remembered his teacher giving Shinji the day off to prepare for the trip to Tokyo-3.

"I don't like this." Shinji muttered to himself inside his teacher's small apartment. The dreams he had were so depressing, horrifying and extremely vivid. He barely had the will to pack everything into his suitcases and duffle bag. By the time he was finished, Hiroshi Fujii arrived home. At 5'11", the 27-year-old teacher seemed to stand out from the rest of the faculty. In appearance, Hiroshi is tall and thin, but with muscular shoulders. He has dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. He is usually dressed in a blue leisure suit, with a yellow shirt and Lupin III inspired boots. Shinji made a mental note never to mention that to him again. The last time he did, he had asked Shinji if he wanted to spar a little. The young boy naturally didn't stand a chance as he was pinned to the ground in less than thirty seconds.

Afterwards, Shinji was never tempted to spar with his English teacher. As a specialist in Jeet Kune Do, Shinji knew Hiro (he preferred to be called that) went easy on him, but that didn't stop his nose from bleeding or the two fat bruises, one on his arm and another on his leg to darken under his skin. On the bright side to that, Hiro had felt so bad about what he had done (despite the fact he didn't show it), he let classes leave early without homework.

"Yo." he greeted

"Welcome back." Shinji replied after turning off the television from the couch in the livingroom.

Hiro didn't bother taking off his shoes, much to Shinji's dismay since he mostly does the cleaning around the small 2 bedroom apartment. "So, you done packing?"

"Yeah." he nodded

"Sure you wanna go?" Hiro asked, placing a cigarette to his mouth, cupping his hands and lighting it.

"Yeah." Shinji wondered if Hiro had a lighter surgically implanted to his palm. It seemed like he never drew it out of his pocket. "I...don't think I have a choice." he added.

Hiro raised an eyebrow and took out his cigarette. "Sure about that?" he asked. "Well, I guess you're right. your dad _is_ the Commander of NERV." he placed the death stick back to his lips and breathed in. "must be important if he's asking for you..." he said deep in thought with the cigarette still in his mouth. "So," he said blinking out of his daze, "what's for dinner?

Shinji walked from the livingroom to the kitchen and began scrounging through the fridge, "I didn't have time to make dinner. There's instant, though."

Hiro sighed, "Yeah, sure." and made his way to the leather couch where the remote sat. Turning on the television, he began channel surfing until he came to a martial arts movie.

Ten minutes went by and the dinner was ready. "Aren't you supposed to grade today's homework?"

"I'll get to it during class." was Hiro's usual reply. The man was rather lazy in school. In truth, he acted a bit more like a PE teacher than an English teacher every time he walked the class out to the fields. The bright side to that was that the fresh air woke everyone up, even Hiro taught better while the class exercised. Of course, there are times when he runs late on grading...

Both males ate their meal in silence. Well, Hiro had the TV on so there wasn't much reason for him to talk at the moment. "Weak." Hiro mumbled on his riceball as the main character in the movie was taking down assassins that were sent out to kill him.

"Why do you watch this if you find it boring?" Shinji asked aloof.

"'Cuz there's nuthin' else on" he answered after swallowing his meal. Looking at the clock he noticed it was a quarter past eight. "You should get ready for bed if you really wanna go-"

"I told you. I don't have a choice." Shinji cut in. getting up, he began making his way to his room.

"Hey."

Shinji turned around just in time to catch a clear plastic bag full of black items. After a careful examination, he realized it was sparing equipment. "What's all this for?" he asked looking up at his teacher.

"Wanna go at it one more time?" Hiro asked, holding a similar bag like Shinji's.

Shinji deadpanned, "And get another bloody nose?"

"So is that a yes, or a no?" he grinned.

"Are you gonna go easy on me?"

"About as easy as last time." he smirked.

Shinji thought about this for a minute. Then he reached into the bag and pulled out the equipment and strapped the head, punch, kick and shin guards on. "Hey, where's the chest guard?"

"What am I, made of money?" retorted Hiro.

Shinji rolled his eyes and charged full speed into the livingroom towards Hiro.

-------

Two minutes later, Shinji was nailed to the floor with a knee planted on the side of his head. Breathing heavily, he tapped the floor, "I give! I give, get off!"

Hiro, barely breaking a sweat, got off the beaten boy and arranged his clothes the best he could under the "protective" foam gear. "I'm impressed," he said unstrapping his gloves, "you lasted longer than I thought. When'd you get so good?"

Unlike Hiro, Shinji was covered in sweat. Two minutes seemed like forever when you're going all out. Amazingly, nothing was knocked over or broken. Then again, Hiro, no doubt, was leading Shinji away from anything vulnerable to the floor. "Dunno." Shinji shrugged.

"Well, I gotta admit, that was a little fun for the last night, don't you think?"

"...I guess." was all Shinji said as he was removing his sweaty protective gear "So how much did this stuff cost you?" he asked, stuffing the plastic bag in the hallway with its contents.

Hiro was doing the same. "nothin'."

"Nothing?" Shinji blinked.

"They're supplies from the school."

Shinji sweatdropped, "So...the chest guar-"

"I didn't wanna bother finding it."

"Lazy cheapskate." Shinji just barely ducked in time as a bag full of foam equipment flew overhead.

"Whatever. Go take a shower, you need it more than I do." as Shinji made his way into the bathroom, Hiro wondered why there was a sudden change in the boy. He was usually meek and shy about anything and almost everything. "Wonder if he's been sneaking out or something..."

**Sunday**

The next day, both Shinji and Hiro got up and prepared themselves for the day. Hiro helped pack everything into the red, beat up-looking Jaguar XJ-S. Neither of the two exchanged words as they made their way to the monorail station. As they waited on the platform for the monorail to arrive, Hiro decided to break the ice, "You nervous?"

"No. I'm not."

_A simple reply_… Hiro thought, might be lying, though. "...scared?"

For a long time, Shinji remained silent. "Yeah." Shinji stared straight ahead as if trying to convince determination into himself. Just then, the PA announced the monorail arriving soon and to stay behind the yellow line.

Once the monorail came to a complete stop, Hiro helped load Shinji's luggage. He stared at Shinji for a moment as the boy stood before the monorail. He then laid his hand on top of Shinji's head and tousled the boy's hair, causing Shinji to look up at him with surprise. "You'll do good, kid." and gently pushed his head towards the direction of the monorail.

Shinji stumbled through the doors and looked back, blinking with a confused expression. Seeing his teacher waving at him with a goofy grin plastered on his face. Shinji stared at him for a bit, worried at the change in behavior on his teacher, but then couldn't help himself and chuckle a bit, grin back the same way and waved his teacher goodbye as the monorail began to move.

Shinji quickly pressed his face against the glass window and looked back to see his teacher still waving until he disappeared from view. _This_, Shinji thought as he made his way to sit down, _is very different from before._

-------

Upon arriving Tokyo-2, Shinji did what he figured was the only thing he could do; sit on the stairs to the monorail station entrance. With the envelope in hand that was sent to his house about a week before his departure, Shinji pulled out the photo inside. Feeling blood rushing to his face as he reminisced what had happened, he quickly placed the picture back into the envelope and stuffed it in his back pocket. Feeling a round object in the pocket, Shinji pulled out a 100 yen coin.

He flipped it in the air for a good half hour before he got bored again. Looking around, he found a rock and began etching away at the tiny piece of metal. His thoughts were turned to the announcement made by the PA:

"May I have your attention? As of 12:30 pm today, a special state of emergency has been declared for the Kanto and Chubu regions surrounding the Tokai district. All residents must evacuate to their designate shelters immediately. Repeat: as of 12:30 pm today, a special state of emergency has been declared for the Kanto and Chubu regions surrounding the Tokai district. All residents must evacuate to their designate shelters immediately."

Suddenly the birds around him quickly took to the air in frenzy. A loud boom bounced off the walls and heavily vibrated Shinji's eardrums. After squinting through the pain, Shinji looked to the hills at the source of the noise. His eyes widened with hopes of doubt at what he was seeing. The giant, green creature had, what looked like bone-ish armor protruding from its shoulders, ribs and legs, stepped out of the hills with thunderous footsteps. His heart raced painfully as two missiles shot through the air above him, causing the small boy to fall to the ground.

Shinji watched as bullets, missiles and bombs had no affect to the Angel. The Angel blinked, almost in annoyance and skewered one of the onslaughting V-tols. The aircraft tumbled to the ground before Shinji, and just like before, the Angel took flight, levitating stories into the air and smashing the remains of the V-tol under its foot like an empty soda can.

Shinji shielded his face from the intense heat that shot at him. Once he put his arms down, he quickly regretted it. The Angel blinked several times at the tiny boy from his bone-like bird mask, raised its foot and began dropping it down on Shinji. Shinji was stunned in place; he knew there was no way to avoid something like that in time. From the look of interest the Angel was giving him, even _if_ he dodged, the Angel might just run after him. Shinji closed his eyes and prepared for his demise, "...shit."

Screeching tires shook him from his reverie and just as he was about to turn his head to look in the direction of the sound, something slim forcefully wrapped itself around his waist and tried to pull him into a small opening. "The hell...!" his arms and legs sticking out of the car window, Shinji almost looked like he accidentally forgot to put the seat down before sitting on the toilet. Looking behind him (or at least, trying to make an effort of) "ARE YOU INSANE!" Shinji yells in his hermit position.

"ARE YOU DEAD!" mauve-haired woman yells back

"Of course I'm not!" Shinji shouted back

"Same answer! Now work your ass in here!" yelled the driver as she makes as much room possible for Shinji to get to the passenger side

The Angel blinked twice and tilted its head in the direction of the bright blue Renault Alpine A310. Holding its arm out at the blue car, the energy-nail on its elbow began to glow dangerously and was about to protruding through its hand at its target when a large missile hit the Angel from behind. Losing balance, the Angel began to fall forward.

Shinji looked back to see the giant green Angel topple towards them "FASTER! GO FASTER!" Shinji shrieked painfully as his head was close to touching his knees.

The mauve-haired woman pretty much summed up a general idea of what would happen after she took a quick glance at her rearview mirror. "It'd be a lot easier if you got in, you know!" quickly placing her right hand on the boy's abdomen; she thrusts Shinji to the passenger side. "Buckle up!" she suggested as she floored the blue car, slammed on the breaks, and skidded down the freeway ramp just as the torso of the Angel shaded them. Misato turned on her headlights to view and avoid the oncoming debris on the highway.

The booming crash that followed, verified that somehow they were still alive. Shinji rolled down the window and looked upward. The Angel was down but not out, as it made its way back to a standing position. His visual was taken away as they entered a tunnel.

The Angel, now having lost interest with the blue car, turned to face the V-tols' behind it. They were all taken out with a single energy blast from its eyes. Clearly, the Angel was rather pissed.

Back in the car, the mauve-haired woman whooped excitedly as they made their way to the other side. "Well, that was exciting, wasn't it, Shinji?"

Shinji couldn't help but think that she had become more insane behind the wheel than usual. "Yeah, I guess so, Misato." he sighed in relief.

"Well, may as start off formal." she said holding out her hand to him, "Hi, I'm Misato Katsuragi." she said with a very cheerful smile.

Shinji took her hand and shook it; "S—Shinji Ikari." was all he said. _This sucks_, Shinji thought, _the things that had happened were happening again._ It was like life just spat in his face and catapulted him back four years.

"So, how was the trip? You've never been to Tokyo-2 before, have you?" Misato asked trying to make a conversation.

"I guess." he said depressingly. "This tunnel seems like it's going forever." he thought out loud.

"Yeah, this used to be the main attraction of Tokyo-2. But there aren't many people here these days. Mostly because of gangs and whatnot." she said swerving to avoid a soccerball-sized piece of concrete. Once they were close to getting out of the tunnel, Misato reached for her phone. Her attempts were in vein as a massive explosion made by an N-2 mine quickly caught up to them and shot them out of the tunnel like a bullet out of its barrel.

Shinji and Misato screamed as the car they were on twisted and turned in the air. The car then landed on all fours, bounced about eight feet into the air, hit the ground at an angle and flipped to a stop at its side. "I—I cant take anymore." Misato mumbled with tearful eyes.

Shinji's seatbelt was jammed, so after much struggling, they were forced to use the cigarette lighter to break free of his restraints much to Misato's dismay. After pushing the Alpine A310 back on all fours, they got in and made their way to Tokyo-3. Misato, once again, reached for her phone and dialed a sequence of numbers. "Hi, it's me. Yes, don't worry; his safety is my top priority. Look, can you get a car train for us? An express, of course. Well, I _did_ volunteer to pick him up, so it's only my duty to make sure he gets there. See ya!" Misato mentally let out a depressed sigh. _This stinks! I—I just had this car repaired and it's a total wreck already_! She mentally whined. _Thirty-three more payments to go _plus_ the cost of repairs...a—and look! My favorite dress is ruined! _Ruined!She mentally cried_. And I looked _so_ good in it, too!_

Bored again, Shinji stared out the window as they reached the mountain. His absent-minded features contrasted to what was going on inside his mind. There are many things he can do, so many errors he can fix. Then again, he was still unsure if he could change anything. What if history really was written in stone? Would all his efforts at avoiding massive destruction be in vein? What would be the point of trying if things are destined to be the way they are? Traveling back in time to change the outcome of the future? That sounded stupid and illogical. If he really did go back in time, then-

"Hey, you're pretty quiet. You ok?" a concerned Misato asked once she finished her inner self-pity.

Shinji was interrupted from his thought. he didn't realize how far they had gotten until the PA announcement came through saying something about the C-22 Special Express departing directly for G33-1. Still, he didn't want to turn to look at her. Just looking at her was hard in itself "Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking." he answered truthfully

"About?" Misato asked trying to start a conversation while the train began making its way through the tunnel.

Shinji didn't want to discuss it in detail, so he chose his words carefully, "if you could go back in time...would it be possible to change the future?"

_Weird way to start a conversation, but…_ Silence was followed for a while before she answered, "I don't think so. If you did…and if the reason that caused you to go back in time disappeared..." she paused a bit more to think a little more into depth. "Well, wouldn't you disappear? And then you wouldn't go back in time and the things that you stopped from happening...uh..." all this thinking was making Misato's head hurt as the car made it's way to the GeoFront. She began scratching her head in frustration. "Why would you want to think of something that stupid?"

"No reason. Just thinking." he said to the window. In truth, Shinji had thought along the same lines Misato had. It would be a useless continuous loop with no end. If he were to change anything of the past. Would that mean he was already in the loop? Did he already ponder these things billions, if not infinite, times before now? Shinji shook his head from those thoughts. _Misato's right, why would I be thinking of anything that stupid right now._

Misato's mood became a bit sour. Not because her head was hurting, but because her point of view of the entire _Back to the Future_ saga was completely ruined. _And I _loved_ watching that movie with a side of Yebisu! _She mentally cried. "Oh yeah, did your dad send you an ID card?" Shinji scrounge through his backpack and pulled out a heavily taped envelope with the ID card still attached. "Oh, thanks!" she took the envelope from the boys hand and handed him a pathetically thin NERV handbook, "Here, start reading this, ok?" They were suddenly bathed in a bright light as they began to descend into the GeoFront. Shinji was all too familiar with it. The giant semi-spherical shape he was able to see, the towers that seemed to hover on the strange, unnatural blue sky. "Pretty cool, huh?" came a voice from his right. "This is our secret underground base, NERV Central. This city is the key to rebuilding our world. A fortress for all mankind."

"Great." Shinji dulled.

"With a tone like that, you make it sound like you've been here before?"

"Yeah, I was here before. I think I was four years old…"

"That's quite a memory you've got there." she said with an impressed look on her face as she read over the taped-up documents.

"Maybe. But I'd rather not remember anything from back then."

"Tough times?" she asked handing him a NERV handbook

Shinji didn't reply he just stared out the window as the train came to a stop on land. Misato started the car and they began making their way up to NERV HQ. Upon entering the giant, steel pyramid, Shinji insisted he guide them to their destination. Misato retorted saying she's been in here much more recently than he has and that things had been changed from back when he was four years old.

Needless to say, she managed to get them lost. They had taken so many twists and turns, Shinji literally had no clue as to where they were. "What on Earth? Isn't this the right way?" she sighed as door R-015 opened, letting in a strong whoosh of air. "It's because of these things that I hate wearing a skirt around here! I wonder where in the heck Ritsuko is..." she wondered aloud. "I'm sorry; I'm not used to this place."

"Hmm." was all she got from the young boy.

"Well, don't worry about it. They make these transit things to be used, you know." just as Misato was about to call it quits and page her college friend, her eye caught something different in the environment they were treading on. She ran down the hall and quickly grabbed a hundred yen coin from the ground. "Sweet!" was all she said. Feeling a tap on her shoulder, she looked back to see Shinji's outstretched hand. A smile crept itself onto her face. "Finders keepers." she said pocketing the money.

"But it has my name on it." Shinji said as a matter of fact.

Misato raised one eyebrow, dug into her pocket, pulled out the said coin and took a good look at it. What she had failed to miss before was engraved on the other side with slight scratching. "How-"

"I got bored waiting for you this morning. I guess I have a hole in my pocket or something." he said putting his hands in his pockets and feeling around for a void of fabric. Sure enough, he felt one just large enough for the coin. Pulling out his pocket, he showed the mauve-haired woman proof of what he said.

Grumbling, Misato handed the coin back to Shinji and made her way to one of the nearest phone boxes. Inputting a short code, the lid slid open to reveal a green, old-fashioned phone inside. "Uh, yeah. This is Captain Misato Katsuragi...could you, um...page Doctor Ritsuko Akagi for me, please?"

"Again?" Shinji heard the exasperated sigh from the receiver.

Misato cringed, "uh-yes, please." and hung up the phone. The panel automatically closed after that.

They wandered around a little longer before they heard the PA paging for a Dr. Ritsuko Akagi. The sound of it echoed off the walls for the fourth time that week and Misato instantly knew Ritsuko was growing tired of it. _One of these days, she's gonna kill me. I just know it. _Misato thought to herself.

Shinji had just barely managed to get his bearings and found the elevators. After a short trip downward, the doors opened with a ding, greeting them to the sight of Ritsuko Akagi in a lab coat draped over her blue, one-piece swim suit. Misato immediately acknowledged this and backed away nervously, "Uh...hi there, Ritsuko."

The said Doctor entered the elevator, forcing the mauve-haired woman to back up in slight fear of getting canned. "_Why_ are you wasting my time, Captain, don't you know we're short on time _and_ manpower?" she glared at her.

"Eh-heh sorry." Misato apologized in the cutest manner she could muster. Normally, that worked on men...

Ritsuko let out a distressed sigh and turned to face Shinji, "So, is this the boy?"

"Uh-right. According to the Marduk report, he's the Third Child."

"Hmm. Pleased to meet you." her eyes seemed to take in every detail of the boy.

"Uh...yeah." Shinji replied. It was hard to believe that the woman before him cracked and broke down in the Chamber of Gauf. He wondered what had caused something like that to happen. No doubt, his father had to be involved...

"I'm afraid he's just like his father." Misato said. "The gruff and unfriendly-type, that is."

"Hmm." at this, Ritsuko's look of interest in her eyes increased somewhat to the point where Shinji felt a bit violated.

Exiting the elevator, they made their way to the lift and began ascending the giant, red, coolant-filled tank.

"Battle stations, level one. Prepare for ground-level intercept" the PA announced.

"There we go..." Misato said.

"It seems pretty serious" Ritsuko thought out loud.

"So how's Unit 01 coming?"

"It's currently undergoing refrigeration using the B-type equipment"

"Does it really work? It's never worked before, has it?"

"The possibility of activation is 0.0000000001. Around here we just call it the 0-9 system."

Shinji turned to look at the giant tanks inhabitant.

"Does that mean it doesn't work?" Misato asked

"Don't be insulting." Ritsuko declared, sounding a bit insulted. "It's _0-9_, as in Oni. A Japanese devil"

Misato sighed. "Well, anyway, I suppose it's a bit late to be saying, 'sorry it doesn't work.'"

One boat ride over the red coolant later, they arrived at the umbilical bridge of a pitch-black room. Shinji jumped a little as the lights flashed on and he was face to face with the giant, purple biological weapon before him. "It's been a while" came a cold, harsh voice from above the Eva. Shinji refused to look any higher and turned away. Gendo Ikari scoffed. "We're moving out."

"Moving out!" Misato repeated "But Unit 00's still in cryo-stasis!" she glanced at the giant purple behemoth, "Wait a minute! You're gonna use Unit 01!" she hysterically asked the Doctor.

"There's no other way."

"Now wait! Rei cant do it yet, can she!" she frantically thought up a good excuse and found one, "We don't have a pilot!

"We just received one."

Realization hitting her face like a ton of bricks, "You're serious…"

"Shinji Ikari?" Ritsuko asked, turning to the young boy, "You will pilot it."

"But even Rei Ayanami took seven months to synchronize with her Eva." Misato retorted trying to save the young boy she just met, "It's impossible for him to do it! He _just_ got here!

"He _just_ has to sit in the seat. We don't expect more than that."

"Uh-but-"

"Listen, defeating that Angel is our ultimate priority. If we have someone who has a chance at synchronizing with an Eva, then we've got to risk it. You do understand that, don't you, _Captain_ Katsuragi?" the emphasis on the word 'Captain' seemed to feel rather harsh as she used the difference in ranks against her college friend.

Misato knew when to accept defeat. "Yes, ma'am."

The entire room shook as energy blasts were being shot at by the third Angel. "Shinji, we don't have much time!" Ritsuko stated.

"Get inside." came Misato's command.

Shinji hung his head and gave a weak nod. He didn't mind getting inside the Eva. He hoped that he might be able to see his mother again, but at the same time, he didn't want to fight.

Ritsuko walked passed the young Ikari. "Follow me, then. I'll show you to the entry plug" Ritsuko guided Shinji to the giant cylinder-shaped machine and had him sit in the cockpit. She grimaced as she remembered Misato saying that it looked like a giant tampon. Misato always knew just which button to push when verbally cornered.

Once the hatch closed, Shinji closed his eyes, his mind contemplating as to how to avoid major damage over Tokyo-3. While he thought about this, he listened carefully to the announcements made in the PA.

"Cooling process completed"

"Cage now in position for docking"

"Signal plug terminator, now being ejected"

_That was Maya_, Shinji thought. He was well aware of the names of the three bridge bunnies. As to why they were called bridge bunnies, Shinji had no clue...

"Roger. Inserting entry plug."

Shinji felt the entry plug spin once and then stop.

"Plug, locked in place."

"Connecting Unit 01"

Shinji kept his eyes closed as the nerves were connected, giving him vibrant colors before visual was confirmed.

"Filling the entry plug." Maya announced.

The horrible stench of iron didn't change in the orange liquid. It's coppery taste filled his mouth once the entire plug was filled to the top. He seriously felt like gagging right then and there. Worrying that the filters couldn't handle his lunch is the only thing that kept him from doing so.

"Don't worry, once your lungs are filled with LCL, your blood will be oxygenated directly. It's ok, you'll get used to it." Ritsuko stated.

Shinji wanted to roll his eyes and tell her to take his place and say that, but he knew he shouldn't act familiar with the Doctor who had just met him.

"Connecting main power"

"All circuits transmitting."

"Roger, connecting Secondary Contact."

The orange tint the LCL was giving off vanished and turned clear. Shinji figured is was a light setting that did that.

"A-10 nerve connection normal."

"Configure the language logic interface for Japanese." Ritsuko ordered.

"All preliminary contacts established. Performance nominal."

"Bi-directional circuits open. Synchronization ratio at 82.1!" reported Maya.

"Unbelievable!" he heard Ritsuko in awe.

"Harmonics seem to be normal. I see no disturbances." Maya said looking at the information gathered in front of her.

Ritsuko took a good look at the info as well. "Hmm... Let's do it!" she shouted to Misato once everything looked okay to her.

"Hmm!" Misato nodded in agreement "begin launch sequence!

"Beginning launch sequence!" came the PA again.

"Removing primary lock bolts"

"Removal confirmed. Removing the umbilical bridge"

"Removing secondary lock bolts!"

"Removing primary restraints"

"Removing secondary restraints"

"Releasing safety locks numbers one through fifty."

"Internal batteries; fully charged!"

"External battery outlet; closed."

After all the locks were removed, Shinji felt his body much more free than before.

"Roger. Move Eva Unit 01 to the launch pad." Maya ordered. "Launch pad clear, all systems green." she stated once the hatch was completely open for launch.

"Evangelion, ready for launch!" Ritsuko announced.

Misato nodded. "Understood. Can we really do this?" she asked turning back to the Commander.

Gendo Ikari, father of Shinji Ikari sat on his throne, his fingers interlaced with each other in front of his face. His dark features seemed to give him a look of constant anger or annoyance. "Of course. Unless we defeat the Angels, we have no future." he stated with his cool demeanor.

"Ikari, are you absolutely curtained?" said the Sub-Commander Kozo Fuyutsuki.

The Commander of NERV just smirked.

Misato took that as a sign, "Eva launch!"

Feeling the g force mercilessly pushing him to his seat, Shinji was shot through the launch pad. The force was something Shinji was already used to, much more than the LCL. Then, as sudden as the launch started, it ended the same. Had it not been for the controls and restraints in front of him, Shinji's body would have been bouncing around the entry plug. He opened his eyes to view Tokyo-3. Instinctively, he frantically searched for the Third Angel. His eyes fell upon a glowing, red orb up at the hills. The owner of that orb seemed to stare blankly at Unit 01.

Misato tensely watched the screen. Evangelion Unit 01 on one side and the Third Angel on the other. _Shinji, don't get killed out there._

_

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Obviously this is my first fanfic. Reviews are inspirational :)


	2. Achieved Individual

Before i get things started,I would like to thank Rahhel for Beta-reading my first, second and soon-to-be third and fourth chapters. :) I'd also like to thank him for the ideas whenever I had writers block as well as the help to submit the story.

As far as pairings go. I havent decided.

"Did Shinji go back in time?" Well, I don't want to spoil anything. ;)

Once again: I dont own Eva. if I did, I'd take it _much_ further than just 26 episodes and 2 movies.

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**Sunday**

"Are you ready, Shinji?" he heard through the intercom.

Shinji readied himself as much as he could. "...Maybe." he said in a broken voice. It seemed strange to him that the Third Angel was just standing there in the outskirts of Tokyo-3.

"Final safety locks; release! Evangelion Unit 01; move out!" Misato had either missed the uncertainty in Shinji's voice or ignored it.

As the safety locks released from Unit 01's shoulders, Shinji felt them more relaxed than what he had expected to be.

With the bridge bunnies keeping an eye for any failures in the system, Ritsuko was free to view the battle that was soon to come. "Shinji, just concentrate on walking for now."

"...Walk..." he said to give his mental will a picture. He was, after all, a bit rusty.

The giant behemoth lifted its right foot and brought it down to the gravel in front of it with a thunderous boom. "He's walking!" Ritsuko was shocked that the walking process seemed to go without a hitch.

At the first signs of movement, Sachiel decided it was time to attack as it jumped off the hills and headed straight for Unit 01. "Shinji, look out!"

Shinji snapped his attention upward, "Shit!" he cursed and with all his might, he forced Unit 01 to jump straight to Sachiel, his feet came up and met with kicked Sachiel back to Tokyo-3's outskirts. Unfortunately, the umbilical cord reached its limit and Unit 01 came to a complete halt in mid-air. Gravity instantly replaced velocity as Unit 01 fell hard on one of the city's buildings. After a quick groan of pain, Shinji got Unit 01 back to its feet, severed the umbilical cable and went on the offense.

With Sachiel away from the city, there would be less damage done and hopefully, less people hurt. He quickly charged at the invading Angel, closing the gap with significant speed. Before the Angel had a chance to react, a massive purple fist smashed into contact with the Third Angels' bird-like face while it was trying to get back on its feet.

Inside the NERV base, everyone was in a mixture of awe and bewilderment. How could a Child, who had never trained in an Evangelion, pilot the giant bio-mechanical beast effortlessly? Not even Fuyutsuki could think of a thing to say as his mind was blank from watching Unit 01 barely dodged one of the energy nails that would have harpooned its chest. Eventually they began cheering the Third Child on.

Unit 01 reached for its Bowie progressive knife stored in its shoulder wing and charged again at Sachiel, only to slam against the Angel's AT Field. Finding that his slashing with the high frequency vibrating weapon useless against the AT Field, Shinji began to expanding Unit 01s AT Field to neutralize the Angels. What he found odd was that the Angels AT Field was growing stronger and he was finding it more and more difficult getting through.

"…The hell?" Shinji started as the immense force of Sachiel's AT Field tossed Unit 01 back like a rag doll. A strong sense of fear was welling up inside the boy as he began to think that something was dangerously wrong.

"Shinji, you're down to your last minute of power!" Misato shouted over the intercom. "Head back and plug in the umbilical cable to Unit 01's back!"

_Shit!_ He had hoped he'd keep the fight away from the city but if the timer reached zero, he'd be a sitting target. "Right!" he shouted and raced back to where the end of the cable lay. Quickly connecting the cable to the Evangelion's back, he turned around to see if the enemy was after him. He deeply regretted it.

Still behind its glowing hexogonical wall, Sachiel, the Third Angel, grabbed the flaps of green flesh that were hiding its regenerating face and began pulling at them. A squeal of pain threatened to break several windows in Tokyo-3 as Sachiel pulled the flesh apart in a very Hulk Hogan-like fashion. But unlike Hulk Hogan tearing his shirt apart, the Angel seemed to have a whole new body underneath. Instead of having a protective bone-like structure on its shoulders and ribs, it was now covering most of the upper torso, lower legs and arms. Its head no longer sat on the body as it was now extending forward from its newly acquired neck. The energy nails it once adorned on the elbows changed into 5 massive claws. The index of those claws was as large as half the Angels' body in length! "No fucking way!" Misato shrieked.

"Shit." was all Shinji muttered as the newly evolved Sachiel charged at Unit 01 with unexpected speed. Jumping back, he managed to avoid a powerful swipe that would have done some major damage. Instead of hitting Unit 01, the long claws had managed to strike through a small building and the gravel streets below. There was no sound that came from the contact. It was like the claws or the world itself was an illusion. The only thing that proved otherwise is the deep marks that had seemed to appear from the building down to the gravel.

"Shinji!" Ritsuko shouted through the intercom. "Don't let it touch you!"

"No kidding!" Shinji hysterically shouted back. He was freaked out at what those claws could do to him, but what worried him the most was the fact that the Angel no longer had its core out in the open. Shinji figured that the core was inside. _It _has_ to be! There's no _way_ this Angel could survive without it! _Shinji thought as Sachiel charged towards Unit 01 again.

The advances Sachiel was making to Unit 01 were far swifter and quicker than he could register! The claws were barely grazing the armor on Unit 01's arms as it tried to defend itself but that was enough to display major damage on it. Quickly jumping back to get enough distance, Shinji looked down at Unit 01's arms. The marks on the armor looked like it was _made_ that way. Almost as if the deep, unpainted grazes were made there before it was attached to Unit 01.

Apparently, Ritsuko saw this, too. "Shinji, get some distance!"

"I can't keep dodging like this!"

"Where're his defense systems?" she shouted to the bridge bunnies.

Maya frantically typed on her panel "The signal's not working!"

"Ah!" Shinji shouted before Sachiel charged at him again. Dodging the claws wasn't easy. It was even harder at night due to the low visibility. Shinji mentally cursed out loud as he back stepped onto a three story building, causing him to fall flat on his back.

"Shinji! Are you ok? Hurry! Hurry, you've got to get up!"

Misato's cries fell on deaf ears as one of Sachiel's index claw pierced through the chest armor like a needle through a pincushion. Shinji let out a scream and clutched the area just above his heart. "Wha...?" Shinji looked up through squinted eyes to see that the claw had just pierced the top portion of the entry plug.

"Chest plate; damaged! Internal damage; unknown!" shouted Aoba

Placing a foot on one leg and piercing the other with its remaining free hand, Sachiel began moving the claw down Unit 01's body slowly, as though relishing the torment it was exacting on the young pilot.

Shinji let out a pained groan. His knuckles were white from the grip on the butterfly controls.

"Shinji! Go for the arm and try go stay as close as possible!"

Unit 01 quickly moved to Misato's orders. Reaching up as much as he could, Unit 01 grabbed Sachiel's wrist and barely managed to pushed it off balance, forcing the Angel to take a few steps back and releasing Unit 01's legs and chest. The Angel let out a squeal of annoyance its now-standing opponent.

Despite the pain shooting from his chest and leg, Shinji wasted no time closing the gap in between to the point where it looked like Unit 01 was about to head butt the Angel. Unit 01 quickly grabbed the Angel's lower arms and began working to tear them off.

Sachiel didn't find it pleasant to have his arms ripped apart as the muscles in its upper body bulged and desperately tried to prevent Unit 01's onslaught.

Shinji was greeted with even more cheers from HQ, urging him to keep it up. He could almost feel the muscles in Sachiel's biceps began to tear. At this, Sachiel let out a massive point-blank blast from its eyes at Unit 01's face. The blast had completely engulfed Unit 01's body.

Shinji tried to prevent serious injury as he quickly placed Unit 01's hands over the chest plate armor. Unit 01 was slammed against the skyscrapers, still cupping the hole on its chest. Seeing Unit 01 losing the battle, Sachiel forced everything it had left into the blast. Shinji screamed as the temperature quickly rose to great heights. The LCL inside the entry plug came to a boil and the boy within passed out.

**Monday**

Shinji sat upright with a gasp. A cold sweat was covering his body as he panted for breath. After absorbing his surroundings, Shinji forced his pulse to slow back to normal as he listened to the sound cicadas.

A sigh escaped his lips as he dropped back onto the cold, uncomfortable hospital bed "I _really_ hate that ceiling..." he muttered before getting up and grabbing the duffle bag that was sitting on the chair next to his bed. He still reeked of blood and he was pretty damn sure his neatly-folded clothes on the chair were starched with the foul orange liquid.

After a quick shower and a change of clothes, he stuffed his old clothes in the duffle bag. Shinji exited his room and stood in the hallway, nervously hoping for a chance to talk to his friend and co-worker.

After standing there for an hour, he began to wonder what was taking his albino friend so long to be carried across the hallway in a stretcher.

Finally! Shinji thought as the doors at the end of the hallway opened to allow a single nurse through. She was about to pass by until Shinji called out for her. "E—excuse me, Miss?"

The nurse turned around and smiled at the boy in front of her, she was wearing a standard nurses uniform, wore glasses and had brown hair tied up to a tight bun. She had a pretty slender figure and a pretty face to boot. "Yes?" she asked in a soft voice.

Shinji blushed a bit at the thoughts running through his head. "C-can you tell me where Rei Ayanami is?"

"Rei Ayanami?" she repeated placing a finger under chin in a cute-thoughtful expression. "Don't think I know anyone by that name. What's she like?"

Shinji nearly fell over at this. _Exactly how many albinos are _in_ this hospital? Maybe she's new... _Shinji placed a flat hand a little bit lower than his height "She's about this tall, she's really quiet and she has blue hair and red eyes." he added jokingly.

"Oh, _yeah_!" he practically shouted. "I've met her. Real quiet. She left this morning."

"Sh—she did?" Shinji nearly shouted in disbelief.

"Uh-huh. Weird thing though; two days ago she was seriously injured. I mean, bruised ribs, huge gash on her side, bump on the noggin, arm in a sling and a messed up eye." the nurse looked at Shinji to see if he were still paying attention. Shinji nodded and she continued, "This morning, I went to check on her and I found her standing up staring out the window. There wasn't a scratch on her. I'd say that girl just experienced a miracle."

"Oh, I see."

"So, is she your girlfriend?" she asked teasingly.

Shinji blushed. "N—no! I mean. She's just a friend."

The nurse smiled sweetly at him. "Well, that's nice but you should visit her more often. Nobody came to visit her when she was here most of the month. Well, I better clock back in before I'm late. Later, kid." the nurse gave a faint wave and took off to the opposite side of the hall he had just entered.

Having no other reason to stay there, Shinji grabbed his duffle bag off the floor and made his way into the waiting room. There was a late-breaking news report showing on the TV in the corner. Unfortunately, the volume was so low; Shinji had to perk his ears to listen to what they were saying. "Our top story...yesterday's new Tokyo-3 explosion has government officials scrambling to make a-"

It was obvious that they wouldn't announce anything about the battle between Unit 01and the Angel. Like the many news reports he heard after every battle; the truth was kept secret to the public. As to why they were kept secret, Shinji didn't completely understand, but he had a feeling things would be chaotic if the public were to find out the truth.

"Hey." said a voice to his side.

"...Misato..." Shinji turned to face her.

"I came to pick you up!" she said in her usual cheery voice

While Misato moved to the front desk to fill out the papers for his release, Shinji went back to his thoughts. All through the journey, Kaworu never answered Shinji's questions. He just smiled goofily at him and kept on leading. Had Shinji been in a better state of mind and body, he'd give Kaworu a damn good piece of what he had coming to him.

"I heard you were feeling okay. I'm glad, Shinji."

Shinji's train of thought was derailed "Yeah, well..." he replied rather distant to Misato's kind words. Personally, he still felt like he couldn't look at her straight in the eye. It's not that he didn't trust her, but just glancing at her face brought back painful memories. It made it harder for him considering she knew nothing of what had happened nearly three years ago.

"I can take you to your place. HQ's taking care of you. You've rated Private Quarters."

"'Private Quarters.' does that mean that I'll be living here?" he asked glancing past the window at NERV Central.

"Well, yeah. You okay living alone?" she asked, giving him a worried glance. "If you submit to petition, you could arrange to live with your father"

That thought was extremely disturbing. "Nah. That's alright. I haven't lived with him for eight years so why bother now? It'd be best to stay apart. Besides, I think it'd be really awkward to move in with someone like him, don't you think?"

"Well..." she wondered with a thoughtful expression. She imagined herself living in the same quarters as the Commander. _Did he even _have_ his own sleeping quarters? Did he even _sleep_, for that matter? _She could imagine waking up in the morning, taking her morning swig and physically expressing her taste buds excitement. Only to be cut short by the cold stare of one Commander Gendo Ikari as he walked to the fridge and poured himself a heaping helping of cold nails into his cereal bowl. Misato flinched from the mental sound of nails bending and breaking under the pressure of molars. "Uh, yeah…I see your point." still, though, a heavy feeling of loneliness always seemed to hover in her apartment every day. Every moment that passed felt like water slipping through her fingers. Suddenly an idea popped into her head, "Hey! Why not live with me? There's plenty of room in at my place and I could _use_ the company." she added flirtatiously.

"Thanks for the offer," Shinji started, "but I don't want to impose."

"Don't be silly!" she brushed off his refusal. For some strange reason, once the idea came to mind, it felt right to be the young boy's charge. "We could be roommates! Think of all the fun we'll have."

And all the cleaning I'll have to be doing... Shinji rolled his eyes. "I really don-"

"Can I ask you something?" she interrupted

"Uhh..."

"Can you cook?"

"Uh, yeah…"

"_And_ clean?"

"W—well, yeah, bu-"

"Even better!" she shouted with a twinkle in her eyes.

Shinji's blood was beginning to boil at the woman's ignorance. "You don't understand, I-"

"Don't worry, it's not like I'm gonna make a move on you." she winked at him reaching for her cell phone.

Shinji took a sharp breath. His lungs felt like they were filled with ice. His entire body felt like it was in shock at those words. Memories of last few minutes with Misato assaulted his mind in one giant burst. Without his knowing or will, his hands had formed two tight fists and were shaking uncontrollably. His face held a terrified look as if seeing a ghost before him. The blood that was threatening to boil over Shinji had suddenly erupted like a geyser and the next few words flew from his mouth like a madman's plea. "Dammit, you stupid, old hag! I told you I don't want to live with you, is it really that hard for that to get through your thick skull!" he screamed before slapping his hands over his mouth. _Shit!_ He thought.

Across from him, Misato's cell phone fell from her hands and clattered to the floor as she stood in shock, slowly absorbing the words that had just been slapped to her face. After composing herself, Misato began making her way out the hospital. "Fine. You don't want to live in one of NERVs rooms or with your dad _or_ with me. Fine." Shinji was about to follow but Misato stopped him, "I'll go on ahead and get your apartment. I'll pick you up on the way back." she snapped without turning back.

Shinji could only stand there, alone. The nurses and secretaries behind the front desk had witnessed the entire scene unfold in front of them but they just tried their best to ignore it...at least until they were left alone to gossip. Shinji went back to the seats, sat next to his duffle bag and waited for his ex-guardian to come for him. "Maybe the 'old hag' comment was a bit too much..." he sighed.

-------

Misato's drive to the main conference room that was held in the stalactite buildings was, well...less than quiet and calm. Throughout the entire drive, she had managed to force twenty-three pedestrians to jump out of her way. "I want him to have the shittiest apartment you got!" she shouted after stomping her way past the doors of the conference room where the meeting with Terada Jinzaburo, the man behind the Residence Assigning Department, or as Ritsuko would call it (much to their dislike): RAD, took place.

"B—but, ma'am. He's the Commander's son! P—practically VIP!" said the bewildered, yet frightened man.

Misato shot him a cold glare, "Are you disobeying orders?" her eye began to twitch again.

"N—no ma'am!" he shrieked. "I'll have to room ready for him in four hours!"

"Make it one!"

"Yes, ma'am!" and he ran off to the nearest elevator to edit the paperwork.

The feeling of getting even seemed to have simmered her down a bit as she made her way back to the hospital to pick up a certain jerk!

-------

On the way to his new home, Shinji couldn't help but think that everyone they passed would probably jump him if given the chance. "Um, is this the right place?"

Misato easily noticed the nervousness in his voice. Fidgeting every now and then at the stares people around them were giving the moving Alpine. Misato wasn't worried. She had ordered Section Two to keep a very close eye on the Third Child. They instantly agreed because she was still in a huffy mood. "Yup!" she replies all too cheery for Shinji's taste "This is your new home. Your stuff should already be delivered."

"Great!" Shinji said in mock enthusiasm as they passed a demolition site. The scene was very depressing as he watched two homeless men fighting for a piece of, what appeared to be beef jerky.

After parking her car and assigning more Section Two agents to guard her Alpine, Misato lead Shinji to the elevators; which weren't functioning. So they settled with having to climb to the seventh floor, much to Misato and Shinji's dislike.

They stopped in front of apartment number 296. Shinji noticed the newly installed lock and steel door. Everything else looked like it was on the verge of collapsing. The walls were cracked, the railing behind him rusting to bits on the cracked concrete floor. And the best view for the demolition crew. _Great. _Just_ great._ Shinji thought.

Misato swiped the card through the reader, allowing the door to slide open with a hiss.

Upon entering the tiny bland apartment (possibly tinier than Rei's) Shinji looked for a clean place to put his duffle bag down. Unfortunately, the only clean place to put anything down was the new bed in the corner or above the new fridge next to the smaller fridge. Shinji wondered if they gave him his own PenPen.

"Well, guess I'll see ya at work. Don't forget you have school tomorrow at No. 1 Public Middle school. Section Two'll show you where it is. Bye-e-e-e-e." she waved, again; all too sweetly.

_In a way, Misato's very much like-_ Shinji dismissed the thought. He looked around his new home. The floor seemed to have layer upon layer of dust with the exception of several footsteps other than his or Misato's, the windows were barred. Entering the bathroom, Shinji quickly closed it. It seemed he might have to start cleaning there first.

Walking back to the "kitchen" he turned the faucets and orange water poured out. He then turned the other faucets to clear out all the rust. The fridge was new, so there was no point in checking it, as was the same with the bed. It was the other fridge that had peaked his curiosity. He opened the door and tried to see what was inside but everything was pitch-black. He carefully reached in search for the lightbulb and twisted it clockwise.

The light flickered on and Shinji focused at what the small fridge held. His eyes grew wide at the sight. He quickly withdrew his hand and slammed the fridge door shut. He sat down in front of it and leaned as much weight as he could on the fridge; which began to buck on its own.

After a few seconds of bucking, the sound of shattered glass could be heard inside. Shinji figured the lightbulb must've been broken. A heavily sweating Shinji slowly and quietly got to his feet and wiped the sweat off his forehead with an arm. Clearly, the first thing he had to do _now_ was to buy some rope from the nearest store!

-------

"That little a-hole called me an old hag! Can you believe the nerve of that-"

"And you're not?" Ritsuko asked jokingly from the safety of being on the end of the line.

"If _I'm_ an old hag, what does that make you, Ritsu?" Misato shot back from her tub.

"…Shut up."

Misato sighed. "He may be a jerk, but still. Before the attack, we were getting along fine…I think."

"So, why the sudden change?"

"I don't know. I guess he must like living alone. He should know it's not all that's cracked up to be."

Ritsuko pulled out a cigar from its carton, stuck it between her lips and lit it. She deeply inhaled and let its toxins calm her nerves. "And judging from where you had him placed; you still want him to move in, right?"

Misato nearly banged her head on the tubs faucet. "Of course I don't!"

"Oh, spare me, Misato. There's so much violence in that part of the city, even the roaches in that neighborhood might hold you at gunpoint for the glue on the back of a stamp." she took out the cigar and took a sip or two of coffee. Her face contorted at its temperature. "Face it; you want him to beg you to move in."

"Alright! So what if I am!"

"Calm down. I know what it's like to be lonely sometimes. If you want, I can probably get him to move in."

Misato's face twisted in disgust, "Why would I want _that_ jerk here? I mean, I already have PenPen."

"True, but I don't think you'd have a decent conversation with your penguin unless you're drunk. And I doubt he'd listen to you if you asked it to clean the place up a bit. Who knows, your apartment might become habitable."

"My place _is_ habitable!"

Ritsuko rolled her eyes. "Sure it is. So what do you say?"

"Well..." Misato put some thought to this. "Go ahead and ask. But I'm not expecting him to go along with it."

"Good. Well, I got to go. I have to work on the shooting simulation with Maya."

"I thought Maya hated guns."

"Don't be dense." Ritsuko chuckled, "I was referring to the Evangelion."

"Yeah, I know. I know."

"I'll come by your place tomorrow. Just do me a favor; clean the place up a bit."

"Pfft! No way! That's what I'm getting a roomie for!"

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow." Ritsuko said once her laughter died down.

"Not too early."

"Believe me; I know what you look like in the morning!" Ritsuko said before turning off the phone with another chuckle before Misato had the chance to retort.

-------

Kozo walked into the dark looming office of Gendo Ikari and made his way to his usual spot beside the Commander. "I received news that Rei's been dismissed from the hospital."

"What's her status?" he asked getting up and looking out the window behind his desk.

"The Doctors say she's perfectly healthy, but to give her another days rest."

"Interesting." came the cold reply as he placed his hands behind his back. "Begin taking Unit 00 out of cryo-stasis."

"Doesn't is seem strange to you that Rei's heavy injuries are suddenly healed in less than a month? Let alone the night the Third Child arrived." Kozo Fuyutsuki was one of few men that question the Commander in this manner and lived to tell about it.

"Nevertheless, now that Rei's condition has improved, we can begin Rei's synchronization test with Unit 00 ahead of schedule."

"Understood."

**Tuesday**

Shinji made his way from the principal's office to the entrance door of class 2-A. He stood there for about ten minutes wondering if he should run back to his apartment or enter the class. An image of a small fridge bounded with rope flashed across his mind and forced him to choose the latter. He inhaled deeply, held it for about five seconds and let it out again. Once he knew he was calm (or as much as he could be) he grabbed the handle and pulled the door open.

The reaction was as expected. The class would turn to the sound and the teacher would keep ranting on about life before 2nd Impact. The rosy hue on his cheeks was also expected as Shinji hung his head a bit to avert the five pairs of eyes staring at the newcomer.

The teacher hadn't seemed to notice anything yet, seeing as he was talking to the window. Speaking of which... Shinji raised his eyes to find that neither Rei, Kensuke nor Toji were there. He quickly found great interest in his shoes.

"Excuse me, teacher." Hikari called out.

Eiji Maruyama, an old hunchbacked teacher with permanently squinted eyes, turned to see the boy standing before his desk looking at his shoes. "Ah. Thank you Ms. Horaki." he walked over to his desk and grabbed the note Shinji held out to him. After reading it three times to make sure he didn't mispronounce the young boy's name, he raised his head to the class. "Children, we have a new student. Would you like to introduce yourself?" obviously, he needs thicker lenses...

"Uh...m—my name is-" he seemed to be out of breath again. "-is Shinji Ikari." he bowed. "P—pleased to meet you!" most of the class giggled at the new boy's shyness.

Now that the name was verified; "Is there anything about yourself you'd like to tell the class, Mr. Ikari?"

"Um, not really..." he answered in his bowed position.

"You can stand up, now." a small wave of laughter rang through the room as Shinji stood straight up. "Now, do any of you have any questions for Mr. Ikari?" Three hands shot up into the air. "Yes, Ms. Mihashi."

Asami Mihashi was one of the few sport-fanatic girls in the class. She was also the tallest one beating Asuka's height by nearly two inches. Her black hair was cut very short and she was often found hanging around with the guys. Despite her interest in boys when around girls, she was also very tomboyish of the entire class. "Why did you move here after what happened yesterday?"

"Uh..." Shinji faltered

"You _are_ aware of what happened, right?"

"W—well, um...m—my dad lives here, so..." well, it was true. Luckily, that question seemed to have been another student's exact question as well.

"Any more questions?" the teacher asked. Only one hand came up this time. "Mr. Tanaka."

Makio Tanaka, the short boy that most bullies seemed to always pick on at school. It's not because he was looked different or anything, it's because he usually has a knack for getting himself into trouble. Makio always thought of himself as "cooler than the rest" because he has a habit of combing his hair back with a combknife. Not to mention he always had a habit of putting his foot in his mouth. "What kind of music do you listen to?"

At this, Shinji perked up a bit. "Well...I listen to a lot of kinds. But I mostly like classical."

"Anyone else before we continue the lesson?" asked the teacher. He squinted his eyes more to see if there were any hands in the air. At the teacher's words of "lesson" four hands shot into the air. Then they were joined by their other hand. "Alright, let's get back to the lesson, then." everyone groaned; even Shinji. "Mr. Ikari, you may have a seat anywhere you'd like for today. We'll get you an assigned seat tomorrow."

Shinji nodded and chose the seat he always sat on.

"Oh, and Ms. Horaki, would you be so kind as to give Mr. Ikari a tour of the school?"

Shinji audibly gulped. He hadn't expected the tour.

"Yes, sir."

What could he say? No? He didn't need one? Every disaccord he could think of could arouse suspicion. All he could do is sit at his desk and try to stay awake.

About five minutes later, his eyes were drooping; threatening to close. It felt nice. He tried to open his eyelids but his pupils seemed to follow the comforting darkness the lids were giving him. He couldn't take it anymore and with a loud clunk, his head slammed against the desk.

The class didn't say anything as they were too entertained chatting away in the chatrooms or playing games.

Shinji was lightly shaken awake about, what felt like, two seconds later by Hikari. "Ikari, wake up. It's lunch time."

"Huh?" Shinji's addled brain tried to kick-start. It failed as he tumbled to the floor. Hikari giggled a bit as she watched him get back up. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. It happens more often than you think." she smiled at him. "C'mon, I'll show you where the cafeteria is."

"Yeah, sure." he dusted himself off a bit and follows the class rep out the door.

-------

At about the same time, in another part of the city, Misato woke up scratching her itchy belly. She greeted her warm-water roomie with a yawn and opened the green fridge that held her elixir of life. Pulling the tab back, she brought the cold aluminum to her lips and drank its sweet nectar. Slamming the can onto the dining room table, Misato let out her raucous hoot for the day.

"That must be Ritsu." had the doorbell rung _before_ her morning drink; Misato would have walked to the door with a bat in hand. But now that she was in her cheery mood. She merrily skipped to the front door. Changing her demeanor to that of a smug victory grin, she opened the steel door with a hiss. "So, Shinji, decided to change your m-" she blinked at the two standing before her. "Morning, Rei. Morning, Ritsuko."

Rei nodded in acknowledgement. "Good morning."

"Morning." she said, amused at Misato's reactions.

"So, what's up?" she asked on tiptoes looking over Ritsuko's shoulder.

"He should be at school by now." was Ritsuko's simple answer, knowing who Misato was looking for.

"Didn't you talk to him?" Misato asked gesturing the two inside, then followed.

"Dear god!" she heard Ritsuko whisper from the living room. "When was the last time you _cleaned_ this place?"

Misato gave a sheepish grin, "Well...I have to have a _first_ time to get a last, you know."

_God, this is college-life all over again._ She thought to herself.

Misato made her way to the kitchen. "You guys want something to drink or eat?"

Ritsuko stopped Rei from raising her hand and speaking out. Rei looked at the Doctor in confusion as her head shook. She then lowered her arm. All she wanted was a glass of water.

"We're good."

"So what happened with Shinji?"

"I spoke with him this morning." her tone then turned to one of seriousness, "God, Misato, you really gave him a horrible apartment. Don't you have any compassion for the poor kid?"

"He called me an 'old hag', what would _you_ have done?" she huffed as she came into the living room with a beer in hand.

Ritsuko sighed. "Anyway, he chose to stay there."

"So Rei's staying here, instead?" Misato asked eyeing the bluehead. (Hey, you can say redhead, but not bluehead?)

"Well, she doesn't have much choice. Her apartment was crushed during the attack last night."

"Oh... I'm sorry to hear that, Rei."

Rei turned to her new guardian with a blank expression on her face, "Why?"

"Well, a lot of your stuff was probably crushed-"

"She didn't have much to begin with." Ritsuko said pulling out a fresh carton of cigarettes. "So you're going to have to get her a new uniform. Not to mention edible food."

Misato scratched her head in frustration, "Well, I guess we have to have a party tonight, huh?"

Rei blinked. "Why's that?"

"It's a welcoming party in honor of my new roommate, of course!" she grinned at the young girl. "Hey, Ritsu, care to join in on the fun?"

"Sorry, I have to head back to HQ. I left Maya alone last night to work on the simulation. If I don't help her out, she'd never get it done. And we still have the repairs for Unit 01 to worry about."

"Alright, but you're gonna miss out on all the fun." she said in a teasing tone.

Ritsuko wouldn't buy into this. She had known Misato for almost ten years. "Funny." she droned as Misato showed her the door.

A final word of parting and Misato closed the door. She turned around to find Rei still waiting for her in the livingroom staring at her. "Alright! I guess I'll show you where you're room's at. Then we'll head to the market place and then your school, alright?"

Rei nodded.

Misato inwardly sighed. _This is gonna be a _long_ day_. She could already feel it...

-------

Back at school, the day was finally over. Shinji gathered his things and was about to head for home but Hikari was already waiting for him at the door. "Ready?" she asked.

Shinji mentally sighed and nodded. He had nearly forgotten he had to spend afterschool with the class rep.

They walked all over the school, Hikari showed him where the basketball court is, the swimming pool, the track area, the library, even the emergency exits! The entire tour lasted about an hour and they were both making their way to the front gates. "Hey, Ikari. Can I ask you something?"

"You can call me Shinji, if you'd like." he said casually.

"Okay, Shinji. What's the _real_ reason you moved here?"

Shinji blanched a bit but kept his pace with that of Hikari's. "I already told you; because my dad lives here."

Hikari's face distorted to a small frown. "I'm not as gullible as the others in the class. I mean, there was an attack going on while everyone was in the shelters." she turned her gaze from Shinji to the front gate "If your dad cared about you, he wouldn't have brought you here in the first place." she added as an after thought. It was about five steps that she realized she was walking alone. "Shinji?" she asked turning back.

Shinji had just frozen on the spot where Hikari had mentioned his dad. His bowed head hid his eyes from view. Fists clenched at his sides.

"Shinji, are you okay?" she asked worriedly walking to him. The boy didn't answer her so she took another careful step closer, "...Shinji?"

"Huh?" Shinji looked up with a startled expression on his face. "Oh, sorry. I guess I just zoned out." he chuckled. "Thanks for giving me that tour. I gotta go! I'll see you tomorrow!" he shouted as he ran through the gate and towards his home.

Hikari didn't respond. She was deep in thought. _What was all that about? I was talking about his dad... _she mentally kicked herself for saying such a tactless thing and began heading for home, just as a bright blue Renault Alpine A310 hurtled into the school parking lot.

-------

_Giant tombstones..._ That's what was going through Shinji's head as he walked down his neighborhood. He noticed that there were more lights on in the buildings than there were yesterday. _Maybe they lost their homes during the attack._

Entering apartment 296, Shinji walked to the foot of his bed and let gravity take its course. Turning around, he looked up at the ceiling and frowned a bit at his grumbling stomach. Giving in to hunger, Shinji got up and reached for the fridge.

It was well stocked and everything appeared to be fresh. He gave a slightly bitter glance at the smaller fridge. He bent over to make sure the rope was secure, then went back to make dinner.

He didn't feel like cooking anything seeing as there was still much to do to clean the apartment. Not to mention the lack of cookware in the small condo. He settled for a plain sandwich.

When he finished, he fell on the bed again and stared at the ceiling, trying to recall what had happened last night. Again; no memories surfaced. Shinji found this strange. Normally when he went berserk he could recall what had happened later on. But for some reason, he wasn't getting anything.

He remembered everything up to the point where the LCL began to boil him like a human lobster. After that: nothing, zero, zilch, nada. "Screw it." he mumbled sitting up to grab his sleeping clothes and got ready for bed.

-------

"LET'S EAT!"

"Let's eat."

Misato was on her seventh can of Yebisu that afternoon and she managed to chug its entire contents in the first shot. Once again, she let out a raucous hoot, slammed the can down and burped. "Good stuff!"

Rei blinked at Misato, and then continued eating her instant vegetarian meal. The amount of alcohol the Captain consumed bewildered the First Child. Throughout the day, she had consumed more than the legal amount and was still able to drive them home. _And just from looking around the apartment…if it had been true that the Captain had just recently moved in, and all the bottles and cans of alcohol were drunk by her alone…_ Rei decided not to think about it anymore. It was making her head hurt.

"So, Rei, you ready for school tomorrow?"

Rei chewed twenty more times before swallowing. "Yes."

Misato faltered a bit at Rei's social skills but quickly regained herself. "Well, we have your book bag ready, laptop, shoes, pens, pencils, erasers, and your new uniform." she had been a bit bothered about Rei's wardrobe when they got home. Only then did it hit her that the First Child never wore anything else besides that or the plug suit at NERV. "Hey, you wanna go shopping this weekend?"

"For what?"

"What do you mean, 'for what?'"

Rei blinked—clearly a sign of confusion.

Misato sighed, "you're not just gonna wear your school uniform, are you?"

"That is all I require."

Misato's mood drooped a bit. "Never mind. Why don't you go take a bath?"

"Yes, ma'am." Rei said monotonously, getting up and making her way to the bathroom.

"I already told you, drop the formalities and call me Misato, would you?" she groaned.

"Yes, Misato." she said just as monotonous as before, shutting the bathroom door.

Misato went for another beer. I _was right. Today was a very, _very_ long day. The girl's impossible to tease._

PenPen came out of the bathroom and glanced at Misato. After giving the woman a sympathetic pat on the leg with his flipper, he waddled to his fridge.

* * *

Reviews are very much appreciated. it fuels my imagination. :) 


	3. A Moments Peace

**I don't own Evangelion. It turns out I wasn't depressed enough at that time. XP**

**My thanks to Hamstadini, Genesis D. Rose, Alucard180, Dog Demons Rock, Rahhel, Zeroeye, RahXephon and that anonymous guy for the reviews! They're greatly appreciated. :)**

**Once again I'd like to thank Rahhel for beta reading this. :)**

**If you'll excuse me, I have to hit the bars to try and reach a new level of depression for some ideas. Without further ado: on with the story! Please R&R. :)**

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**Wednesday**

"Dammit!" Shinji shouted as he made his way to No. 1 Public Middle school. Rounding the corner, he ran as fast as his throbbing legs would allow him to. Just as the morning bell rang, Shinji stumbled into the classroom.

"Good morning, Shinji." Hikari greeted when he entered.

"Morning...Horaki." Shinji panted, trying to catch his breath.

"Hikari." she corrected sternly.

"Huh?" he wheezed.

"You told me to call you by your first name yesterday, so I think you should at least call me by mine, too." she stated with her hands on her hips.

"It's..." he was about to say he didn't _have_ to if he didn't _need_ to, but that'd sound stupid now that he thought about it. "Okay." he nodded

"'_Okay...?_'" she pressed.

"Okay, Hikari?" he asked once his breathing calmed down.

"Good!" she nodded with a smile. "You look tired." she added with concern.

Shinji took a quick look around the classroom. He frowned a bit seeing the same five students from yesterday were the only ones attending today. "I am. I don't live very close from here and I woke up a bit late this morning."

"No," she shook her head. "I mean you look _fatigued_."

"Oh! I didn't sleep well last night. My fridge kept on waking me up."

"Is it making a loud noise?"

"Yeah. It's very loud." Shinji nodded.

"If it's making a loud noise, maybe you should call an electrician or something before the food spoils."

Shinji stared at her for a bit before exploding into fits of laughter at the idea of an electrician checking up on the small fridge ready with tazers in hand, causing the Class Rep to give him a confused look. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry." he said in between laughs before calming down. "Ahhh." he sighed. "I needed that." he wiped the tears from his eyes.

"What's so funny about an electrician?" she asked.

"It's not that." he answered. "I don't even think a stick of dynamite will take care with what's wrong with _that_ fridge. Besides," he added "I have a new fridge next to the old one."

"Then why don't you get rid of it?"

"It's...a little bit more complicated than that." he chuckled nervously. It was strange for him to be talking to Hikari this way. He had never spoken with her directly like this in the past.

"_Oh_." she said realization striking her. "It's an _in-wall_ fridge."

Shinji blinked at her, and then bit back a snicker.

"Anyway, I wanted-" the warning bell cut her off. "I'll tell you at lunch." she said before they both made their way to their seats and took her role as the Class Representative. "Everyone, stand. Bow. Sit."

The morning class would've been boring had the teacher not given Shinji his laptop. He spent half of that morning setting it up, installing the software, and inputting in the required information from the pamphlet that came with the red lifesaver. He spent the other half of that morning playing solitaire. _If Kensuke were here I'd be able to access the internet._

When the bell rang for lunch, Hikari made a bee-line straight towards Shinji. "Listen. I want to apologize. About yesterday, I mean."

"Yesterday?" he asked, pausing the timer on his game.

"Yeah." Hikari began to shift uncomfortably. "On our way off the campus, I said something that I shouldn't have."

Shinji had a thoughtful look on his face and finally remembered what she was talking about. "Don't worry about it." he said smiling to reassure her. "It's no big deal."

"Really?"

"Yeah. We wouldn't be here if I refused, anyway."

Hikari cocked her head to the side, "Huh?"

"What?"

"_What?_"

"Huh?

"You said, 'we wouldn't be here if you refused.' What did you mean by that?"

"Never mind." he quickly replied.

Hikari shrugged and made her way out the classroom.

Shinji turned to each chair that normally reserved his three friends and sighed. He turned back to his game and un-paused it. For some reason, he didn't feel very hungry for lunch today.

**Friday**

Busying herself with making dinner for her family, Hikari was deep in thought as to why Suzuhara and Aida hadn't attended class for the past three days. A tug on the hem of her sleeve brought her back to reality. She turned to see her younger sister, Nozomi pointing at the stove.

Moving her gaze in the direction her younger sister was pointing to, Hikari let out a cry as she dumped the flaming rice into the sink and ran cold water on it. Groaning through the heavy cloud of smoke at the loss of her rice, she cheerily turned to Nozomi. "Tell dad and Kodama we're ordering out." she said with a toothy grin.

"Okay." the shorter double-pigtailed girl nodded and headed towards her eldest sisters room first.

Hikari grabbed a nearby phone, walked into the livingroom and slumped, exhausted, onto the sofa. She hoped nothing happened to her childhood friends.

**Saturday**

Thursday went by very slow. Halfway through class, Shinji was called in for testing at NERV. Unit 01 was so heavily damaged they had to run the simulation through the entry plug. He found rather pointless though, seeing as there was no way in hell an Angel would just stand there waiting for car-sized bullets to hit it. At least it proved more entertaining than remembering all the basics of the umbilical cord and escape hatches.

Friday went by in a blur as he enjoyed a conversation with Hikari. Shinji never knew she had two sisters. Then again, he never bothered to know anything about his non-pilot friends back then...other than Kensuke, that is.

Not surprisingly, Hikari's dad also worked for NERV. It seemed that everyone from class 2-A had a parent or guardian working for NERV. Hikari didn't bring anything up about his dad, which he was grateful for. He was a horrible liar, after all.

Hikari mentioned two of her old friends she thought would get along with him. When he asked where they were, she said she didn't know and that she's been worried that they were somehow involved in that attack on Monday. He never thought about it until now. _What_ if _Toji and Kensuke were injured during the attack?_ _There's no way of knowing whether or not they would be stupid enough to try and get up close and personal with the action that was going on. Not after the last time..._

Shaking the thought from his head, Shinji resumed to finishing his toast and orange juice. Grabbing his book bag and his lunch, he exited apartment 296 and raced down seven flights of stairs.

As Shinji walked down the streets of his forsaken neighborhood. He found it odd that whenever he turned to look at anyone, they would turn the other way. As if he was shunned from society. Putting little thought to it, he shrugged and headed for school.

"Hey, Newcomer!"

Shinji froze in place. He slowly turned around to find a tall boy leaning against the building with his arms crossed. Attired in his usual gym uniform, Toji kicked off the wall and made his way to Shinji with an annoyed expression. Shinji carefully stepped back as the he came within inches from his face.

Shinji flinched and shut his eyes as Toji raised his arm. He hadn't expected to be placed in a headlock and receive a nasty noogie on his poor scalp. His captor let out a loud laugh that seemed to contrast his early expressions. "Hey, Kensuke!" he shouted. "I found him!"

"T—Toji!" Shinji's arms flailed about as he desperately tried to escape his detainment.

"On my way!" came a yell from around the corner of another complex.

Shinji managed to get out of Toji's 'Killer Hold' and looked to find the owner of the yell. "Kensuke!" he shouted at the otaku who was making his way to them with a big smirk on his face.

Not being able to restrain himself anymore, he grabbed Shinji in a tight hug around the waistline and was jumping like a mad rabbit as he and Toji laughed like they just became kings of the friggin' world! It didn't take long for the infectious laughter to reachShinji as he joined inwith his friends.

It seemed all was right with the world.

-------

"So where have you guys been all week?" Shinji asked making their way to school.

"Well, to be honest, we were taking a little vacation."

"Yup! We've been hanging around the arcade, going to the movies, the mall, the courts, the arcade again..." Kensuke said counting them down the fingers.

"So you two decided to come to school today to keep from arousing suspicion?" Shinji asked with a smirk of his own.

"Well..." Toji started "Actually, we came today 'cuz Mari busted us."

"The Class Rep stopped by Toji's place with his printouts. Mari was the only one there at that time." Kensuke informed.

"And she didn't tell Hikari?" Shinji asked interested in the answer as Toji sulked.

"Nope, she covered for him that time. When he got home, she threatened to tell if Toji didn't get his lazy butt back to school." Kensuke laughed.

"Shut up, will ya?" he growled. "I can't believe she's blackmailing me!" he grumbled. "So, what about you Shinji? We haven't seen you in almost three years." He asked eager to change the subject.

"Nothing much, really. I've been traveling most of the time."

"Yeah? Where?"

"Well," Shinji started trying to recollect his memory. "I started traveling east from Japan. When I reached the shore, I took a boat all the way to United States and kept going from there."

"That's cool. What about Hawaii?"

"I didn't see it on the way over."

Kensuke adjusted his classes. "Think it was underwater?

"I don't know. I must've been too far to see it. All I did was follow the compass east. I think I managed to reach Farpoint, South Dakota, before Kaworu caught up to me. I _still_ can't figure out how he found me, though."

Kensuke was staring at the sky absentmindedly, "He's a weird one, alright. But I'll tell you this: he's _really_ tough to beat in a fight."

Shinji blinked, "Tough?"

"Yeah, even two-on-one he still kicks both of us around. Me and Kensuke have been working our asses off to beat him." Toji grimaced at their last showdown. "I think he's still toying around with us."

"You mean 'going easy', Toji." Kensuke deadpanned.

"My ass! He never broke a sweat! And he kept on wearing that goofy smile of his!"

"What'd you expect? He was probably trained at NERV."

"I think he said something about '_seals_' or something."

"_SEELE_." Kensuke rolled his eyes. "He was talking about SEELE."

Toji pointed at Kensuke, "Yeah, that."

"_Anyway_," Kensuke said loudly to get off the boring subject, "wanna see what we can do?" he asked Shinji with an eagerness of a child wanting to impress his parents.

Shinji held up his hands defensively, "You shouldn't."

"Yeah, Shinji can't take a hit from us, remember?" Toji said, arms extended to his sides trying to balance on the edge of the sidewalk.

_Ouch._ Shinji thought taking a blow to his already deflated ego. "No, I mean Section 2 might be keeping an eye on me."

"Oh yeah." he snapped his fingers in disappointment, causing him to nearly lose his footing. "Well, it's not like we can't take them."

"I doubt you can dodge bullets." Shinji grinned wryly.

"When the time is right; I won't have to." he quoted The Matrix before Shinji and Kensuke playfully shoved him off the sidewalk.

-------

"Hey, Class Rep." Toji greeted.

"S—Suzuhara..."

"What'd we miss?" Kensuke added.

Shinji walked passed the three to see if Rei had already arrived but only saw an empty seat. "You guys missed out on some _really_ important stuff." he said nonchalantly.

_That was strangely bold of him._ Hikari thought as she grabbed the printouts from the teacher's desk and handed them to the faltering Kensuke. "Where have you two been? Were you involved with what happened on Sunday?"

"Something like that..." Toji answered uncertainly while nervously scratching his jaw.

Without a solid explanation for their absence, he sidestepped the Class Rep and made his way to his seat in the back. "Hey!" she said turning around. "Aren't you going to tell me?"

"Sorry, Class Rep, it's kinda personal." Kensuke informed.

Hikari let out a disgusted sigh at the two. "Then can you two at _least_ greet the new student?"

Both Toji and Kensuke looked around to see the so called '_new_' student. They then turned back to Hikari with a look that seemed to say, '_Where?_'

"_Him_, you idiots! Behind you!" she stated impatiently walking over to Shinji and placing a hand on his shoulder causing the young boy to flinch a bit but Hikari didn't notice it. "This is-"

"Shinji. Yeah, we know." Kensuke blurted out before receiving a panicked look from the other two friends in the class.

"You..._know_ each other?"

"Yeah," Kensuke quickly answered realizing his blunder. "We're pen pals." Toji nodded to Kensuke's answer. "We met on an online game a couple months ago."

"Really?" she asked mildly surprised. "I didn't think Suzuhara played online games."

"I don't." he answered quickly to save face. "I'm more into racing games or sports games. I was just there to kill some time."

"I kinda like fighting games." Shinji commented. "I don't play that much, so..." Shinji had rarely played a video game in his life. He never really had good friends like Toji and Kensuke to invite him to the arcade. His talents seemed to be worthless against Toji's choice in entertainment but he was glad Toji agreed to play against him every now and then.

"_Oh_...well, I'm glad you already know each other. Saves me the time of introducing you." she made her way to her desk wondering ifSuzuhara ever told Shinji anything about her. Several minutes later, two more students walked in before the late bell rang and Hikari played her daily roll. "Everybody, stand. Bow. Sit."

"Thank you Ms. Horaki. Good morning class. Today we're going to discuss the hazards of today's building materials and compare them to those of the 1900s. Now, when I call out your name, please say 'here'. Yes Ms. Horaki?"

Hikari lowered her arm. "You already discussed that yesterday, sir."

"Oh. Very well. Then let's move onto produce."

A collective groaned filled the classroom walls.

Shinji booted up his laptop and waited.

:"NERVwrecker" is inviting you to NERV:

:"SI" has logged in:

:"The Stomach" has logged in:

SI: did you really have to rename the chatroom "NERV?"

NERVwrecker: What's wrong with the name?

The Stomach: just let it go. he'll never learn

SI: can I ask you guys something?

NERVwrecker: Shoot.

The Stomach: depends

SI: how did you guys know where I lived?

NERVwrecker: Ayanami told us.

SI: Rei? When?

NERVwrecker: This morning. We were heading to your place and we ran into her.

SI: From my place?

The Stomach: actually, Misatos. we ran into her when we were about to take the elevator

SI: Rei's living with Misato?

NERVwrecker: We asked if you two were going to class together or something and she said no.

The Stomach: yeah, she didn't tell us exactly where you lived, just where it was

NERVwrecker: I guess so. It makes sense, seeing as she kinda smelled a bit like beer. So we asked her where you were living and me and Toji headed there. She didn't give us any detailed info as to where you were.

Shinji turned in his seat to look at a specific vacant desk. _I wonder where she is, then._ He then turned back to his laptop to see that both Kensuke and Toji had logged off. Looking up, he fell victim to Hikari's glare and quickly logged off.

-------

"I'm telling you, I sent him flying, like, maybe _five_ feet!"

"I already told you; that was a pity shot! _Pity!_" Toji shouted in his defense.

The three stooges were sitting on the rooftop enjoying their lunch as they conversed what they had done and went through. While Shinji's story seemed to sound more like something out of a fairytale or the bible, Toji and Kensuke's story was very humorous from their sparring bouts. Although Toji held the title over Kensuke, he couldn't hold a flame next to Kaworu.

Kensuke threw an arm over Shinji's shoulders, "Whatever. So, when are you gonna fill us in on what happened on your trip with Kaworu?"

"Yeah, you guys didn't do anything sick, did'ja?"

Shinji raised an eyebrow, "What are you guys talking about?"

"Come on. He gets the same weird look Ayanami gets when you come up in a conversation."

Shinji blinked several times. "...a weird look?"

"Don't play coy!" Kensuke shouted, holding Shinji in a headlock. "Toji told me all about it!"

"I'm serious! I don't know what you're talking about!" he managed to croak out before Kensuke released him. "You guys are weird." he said massaging his throat. Leaning his back against the rail again, Shinji began to eat his lunch. Toji and Kensuke began doing the same thing. "I wonder why Rei didn't come today..." he muttered thoughtfully.

"Maybe she had a test today." Toji insisted.

"They would've told me if they did."

"Like the time they told you about Toji being a pilo—OW!" Kensuke was cut short by a hard elbow jab to the ribs.

The jock nervously glanced at Shinji. Seeing him stare at his lunch made him even more nervous. He waited until he finished chewing his meal and swallowed. "Well, anyway," he said trying to get off the subject, "I don't see why we even have to come to class. It's just gonna be vaporized in about a year."

"Not to mention the fact that we've already went through everything the teacher discussed."

"Didn't you guys sleep through most of the lectures?" Shinji asked earning a light swat over the head from Kensuke.

-------

"You summoned me, Commander?"

"Come here, Rei." Rei walked down the cold dark office and stood on the opposite side of the desk. "Why haven't you gone to school all week?"

"The doctor ordered me to rest." she instantly replied.

"He gave you one day's rest." he stated turning to the view the GeoFront behind him.

"I have felt ill as of late." which was true. The Captain's cooking could probabily bring down a wild boar.

"I see." he said turning his head slightly to look at her out of the corner of his eye. "Perhaps it's your new residence...I should have placed you in the same complex as the Third Child. It appears that is the closest available residence to the school."

"Is that not further from the express train to the GeoFront?" the First Child asked.

"Correct. Is that acceptable?"

Rei blinked. It was hard to believe that the Commander of NERV would assign her to live with the Captain in the first place. It was even harder to hear him ask for her opinion.

"Rei. I asked you a question." Gendo stated losing his patience. The light somehow gleamed eerily off his tinted glasses.

"I believe it would be best to stay with Captain Katsuragi. Under any type of attack, she is far more reliant than Section 2." She could feel she was closely being studied as the Commanders cold gaze scanned her body for a sign of any kind from the ordinary.

"...Very well. You may leave."

For the second time that day; Rei blinked. "Yes, sir." She turned on her heel and began walking to the door.

She was inches away from reaching the doors. "And Rei?"

She froze in place and willed her body to turn to face him again. "Sir?"

"...Be sure to attend school next week."

"...Understood."

**Sunday**

"Hey, Shinji!" The said boy turned around to find Toji running to him. "Hey! Where you headed, man?"

"Nowhere in particular. I just needed to get out of that neighborhood for a while." he answered making his way to a park bench. "Where's Kensuke?" he asked. It seemed the two were rarely apart from each other these past few days.

"He's at the store buying disks for the camera."

"That's Kensuke, for you." he chuckled at their friend's hell-bent desire to catch anything out of the ordinary on video. "So, what's up?"

"Me and Kensuke were thinking of heading out of town for a while Saturday afternoon."

"What for? And why Saturday?" he asked puzzled about the Jocks plans.

"Well, we decided to show you what we've been working on these past couple of years."

A skeptic look crossed Shinji's face. "So in other words; you want to brag."

"Think of it like this: you get to check out what we can do and _not_ have to worry about your security checking in on us."

"That's _still_ bragging." he dulled with half-lidded eyes.

Toji scratched his nose. "Well...yeah. But to be honest with you; I just don't wanna be here for the next attack. It's two weeks after the first attack, right?"

"I don't know the specifics, but yeah, it's around two weeks. Are you planning on taking your sister with you, too?"

"I'd like to, but Kensuke doesn't think it's a good idea. Besides, we already got that covered." he said. "I'm gonna take her over to the Class Rep's place for a sleep over with her sister. She's more reliable than I am, so I'm not worried about her if the attack happens when I'm not here."

"Won't she get suspicious?"

"Don't worry about it. She and Nozomi are close friends. They've almost always slept over at our place or hers. And my dad and granddad are always at work, so I don't think they'll notice me missing for a day or two."

"That's cool." Shinji agreed.

Toji began to get restless. "The hell's taking him so long?" Shinji shrugged. "I'm gonna go look for him. Wanna join me? We can hit the arcade later." he offered.

"Nah." Shinji got up from the bench. "I was thinking I'd walk around a bit longer."

"Suit yourself." Toji shrugged before leaving. "If you change your mind, you'll find us at the arcade." he called back before continuing.

-------

It was beginning to get dark. The sun was already making its way behind the mountains that seemed to surround most of Tokyo-3. The street lamps had just started to flicker to life. And the cicadas...well, they continued their incessant chirping.

Without his realizing, Shinji had wandered just in front of the building where Misato and Rei currently resided in. Blinking away his stupor, he decided to see if anyone was home. After taking the elevator to the 11th floor, Shinji stood in front of the door, reading the engraved plaque that held his former guardian's name for what felt like an umpteenth time, his finger against the button, deciding whether or not to ring the doorbell.

A loud crashing sound brought him back to reality and he jumped a bit, accidentally pushing the doorbell. There was a slight silence that hung in the air before a shuffling clatter followed. Shinji knocked on the door. "Misato? Rei? Are you two alright?" he called out. That emitted more violent noise from behind the steel doors. He began pounding his fist against the steel door. "Hey! Are you two alright!"

Still no answer.

Panic-stricken, Shinji ran fifteen feet from the door and charged all out, intent on ramming the door down. Or at least, try to. He hadn't expected a certain warm-water penguin to open the door and tackle his leg, causing the young boy to fall face-first inside the apartment. He rolled on the ground for a split-second before crashing hard against the wall. The act was rather hilarious had anyone had been watching. Shinji was upside-down with his back to the wall. His feet were dangling PenPen on the hem of his pants in the same overturned position he was. "Ow." was all he muttered at the penguin before he tried to shake him off.

Figuring the boy hadn't noticed the situation clearly, PenPen squawked at his feet before the turbulence caused him to toss up his latest so-called 'meal'. Glancing in the direction the penguin had squawked, a twitch in the form of a smirk threatened to cross his face. "You've been trying to sneak around Misato's back again, haven't you?" The item in general that PenPen had squawked at was a sewn net of plastic six-pack can holders that had tangled itself about his feet.

PenPen shamelessly nodded and squawked again. Shinji got to work untangling the bird from his leg. Free from the tangled mess of Misato's trap, PenPen made his way down the hallway and into the kitchen with Shinji right behind him. Shinji didn't know _how_ or _when_, but he always seemed to understand exactly what the flightless bird was thinking aloud.

Well, this time, the grumble emitting from his stomach indicated that PenPen hadn't been given a decent meal in days. Shinji grimaced at the mess. It seemed no one in the apartment would keep the place clean. Grabbing a can of tuna from the freezer, Shinji set it on the counter to let it thaw.

PenPen had a hopeful look in his eyes the moment the aluminum can hit the counter. Shinji knelt down and gave him a friendly pat on his feathery head. "You remember, don't you, PenPen."

Knowing it was more of a statement than a question, PenPen gave another nod and a soft chirping sound.

"I know Misato's at work at this hour... Is Rei home?"

PenPen shook his head.

"Is she with Misato?"

PenPen nodded.

"Hmm..." he hummed glancing at his watch, then at the trash and empty bottles of beer strewn all around the living room. "I'm gonna clean up a bit around here while your fish thaws a bit. Okay?" The bird nodded again and made his way into one of the counters to pull out the box of trash bags.

Shinji chuckled at the penguin holding the box in flipper. "Heh. You want to help?"

"Squawk!"

-------

Two hours after Shinji left, Rei arrived home from her re-synchronization test with Unit 00. She blinked upon reaching the kitchen, walked back outside and checked to see if she had entered the right apartment.

-------

Two hours after Rei had arrived; Misato did the exact same thing. "OH MY GOD! WE'VE BEEN ROBBED!" The only difference is that she panicked.

**Monday**

The next morning, Toji and Kensuke greeted Shinji at his door and asked if he had new neighbors around the neighborhood.

"I don't know. Why?

"'Cuz they tagged across your door."

Shinji walked out and looked at the wall behind him. Toji was right. There were about four marks of different color spray paint running across the entire floor. "Huh..." In all honesty, Shinji could care less about it.

"They call themselves 'the Clan.'" Kensuke informed. "We walked across some of their work on the way over here." Shinji shrugged and walked back in to grab his book bag.

"Maybe you should think about moving, man. I don't think this place is safe anymore."

"I think I'll be alright." Shinji said walking out of his apartment and to the stairs. "I'm sure there're more Section 2 agents guarding me than normal around here. What's _that_ say?" he asked pointing at the graffiti art painted on the side of the wall.

"'Fuck you all'."

"Really?"

"Yup."

"Ah." Shinji nodded. "How can you misspell 'fuck'?"

Kensuke shrugged, "I bet they're just wannabe bad-asses. Not worth bothering."

-------

Rei didn't like this feeling. It was a heavy feeling of apprehension and dread the moment she saw the three boys walk through the school gates. Her heart began to beat faster, her breathing was shortening and a strong urge to vomit had formed in her belly. Her hand, she noticed, was feeling cold and clammy against her cheek.

The entire class could feel the tension coming from the pale girl. Hikari walked over and tapped her on the shoulder some four minutes later. "Ayanami?" Rei jumped in her seat. No one has ever seen Ayanami so tense. It seemed to creep everybody out. "Are you alright? You don't look so well."

"I don't feel well. Excuse me." She stood up, bowed apologetically to the Class Rep and began making her way to the nearest restroom.

"That was...strange." Hikari muttered to herself.

-------

Rei had just turned the corner to where the restrooms were located and quickly jumped back to hide behind it. As fast and as quietly as she could, Rei ran the opposite direction and turned the corner just as Shinji, Kensuke and Toji casually walked into view. If anything, Rei felt her condition worsen. With a swarm of butterflies in her stomach and her heart threatening to explode, Rei walked to another restroom as fast as her rubbery legs would allow.

_I can't continue this way_, she thought as she cupped another handful of water and splashed her face. The day hasn't even started and already, she felt like she was about to keel over from the stress of avoiding the Third Child. _...What can I do?_ Looking up to see her reflection, Rei blinked as realization crossed her mind. She couldn't believe she hadn't see it before. It wasn't exactly the perfect answer, but it was the best she could think of at that moment.

Grabbing a towelette from the dispenser, she patted the moisture from her face, rearranged her clothes and walked out of the girls' restroom with a demeanor colder than the bluest of ice.

-------

The class's lectures had taken a bit more interest today as the teachers lectures were about the now-extinct species from before Second Impact. Kensuke and Toji were playing online against each other, trying to knock each others character off the platform or something; Shinji didn't bother to pay much attention considering they were sitting behind him. He was too busy staring at Rei's desk. Having seen the book bag hanging on its holder, all Shinji could think about was what to say to her.

But he was still afraid to confront the girl; even more than he was to Misato. The things he had seen at the age of fourteen were not for the weak of heart. He doubted that even an adult would have the courage to face her once her past is displayed to them. Shinji shook his head to rid the thoughts of organs and limbs floating across the large tank of LCL.

The sound of the classroom's shoji doors brought everyone's attention to its maker. Then back to what they were doing after seeing who it was. Shinji's words caught in his throat as he tried to make conversation with the First Child. "Uh-Aya...I—I-Aya. G—g-g-"_Dammit_, he thought angrily_, I've rehearsed this over and over and all that comes out was sputtering nonsense._ Rei was about to walk past him. He knew he had to do something to get her attention but the fear felt like it was compressing his throat, stopping anything but air to escape his mouth. He finally decided to loudly clear his throat at her.

Rei ignored him. She walked passed as if the seat were empty. Toji and Kensuke witnessed this and wondered what was going on between the two Children. They became infatuated with chatting to each other in the chatroom. Everyone else in the classroom was used to Rei's cold attitude towards everything.

Every once in a while, Shinji would turn around to see what Rei was doing. But all she did was stare out the window the way she always does, ignoring the world within the four walls.

The rest of the day was a horrible moment for Shinji. After classes had ended, he finally built up enough courage to stutter a few words to Rei. When those blood-red orbs focused on him, his entire body felt like it was dumped into a frozen lake. The only reply he got from the girl was an 'Excuse me' and walked passed him. Nothing more.

The two stooges were worried about their comrade and had confronted Ayanami before they lost sight of her on her way home. Her reply was no different from what she gave Shinji. With nothing else to do, they headed for home together, conversing about the sudden changes in Ayanami.

**Saturday**

Most of the week had gone by without any change. On Wednesday, Shinji had stopped trying to converse with Rei after she ask him to. Not wanting to be one to dig his nose into another person's business; Shinji accepted defeat. He spent the rest of his days hanging around as the three stooges hit thearcades and the malls. "So," he said in between slurps of his Coke. "Are you guys really heading out?"

"Yeah, man. I already helped Mari with her stuff."

"So you guys are gonna take her to Hikari's tonight?"

"Yeah, I'm really hoping we get back before the next attack comes." Kensuke said gently patting his camera. He had offered to show the bout filmed between the Third Angel and Unit 01 but Shinji declined the offer. After seeing the damaged Eva still undergoing construction, Shinji had accepted his memory lapse. He found it hard to believe that Unit 01 still hadn't been completely repaired after two weeks.

Thinking about it now; Shinji was starting to get worried. Unit 01 was still in the process of regenerating its missing right arm and most of the torso. He found it ironic that the Eva now shared close to the same physical condition he had a few years ago. Subconsciously clenching his right fist, he forced that thought back to the recesses of his mind.

"You okay?"

Blinking out of his daze, Shinji nodded. "I'm fine."

"You don't look it." Toji said with a side-glance.

"Can you blame him? His Eva's missing its arms and a large chunk of its right side was vapor-ai-i-i-i!"

Toji had stomped his heel on Kensuke's foot. "Shut up, you idiot."

"What. I'm just saying the next attack might be tomorrow and he's-" Toji twisted his heel "AH! Stop that!" he said through clenched teeth.

"So, Shinji! You wanna check out a movie?"

Shinji perked up a bit. "Which one?"

"Doesn't matter! We'll pick one when we get there."

"Hey! Let's watch 'It Ca-a-ame from Tokyo Ba-a-ay!'" Kensuke suggested in as ghoulish voice he could make.

"Those kind of movies are stupid, man!"

"No they're not! They're cool!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yuh-huh!

Shinji watched by the sidelines as the five-year-olds argued. "Guys..."

"Only geeks and nerds watch that kind of crap!"

"No way! I know stupid jocks watch them on their dates!"

"You're one _sad_ little puppy if you go to the movies alone, man."

Had Shinji been wearing glasses, he'd be rubbing the bridge of his nose trying to calm the headache that was coming in. "Guys..."

"At least I have the _guts_ to watch them."

Toji pulled back at this. "Wh—what're you getting at?"

Kensuke smirked. Toji's reaction was dead-on "You're scared, aren't you?" he whispered.

"Guys!" Shinji shouted, grabbing the attention of everyone in the mall. He blinked as the words sunk in. "You're scared of horror movies?"

Toji's face turned beet red at that. He roughly grabbed both boys in a headlock and whispered into their ears. "You guys wouldn't _tell_ anyone..._would_ you." Judging from the ominous and life-threatening voice and the lack of oxygen traveling to their heads, both boys vigorously shook their heads. "Alright then!" he said in a cheery tone, letting the two boys slump to the floor." Off to the movies!"

-------

"Aw, man! It's _great_ to have Saturdays off!" Misato cheered, placing her home-nuked dishes on the livingroom table. "Grub's ready, Rei!" she called out to 'Rei's Lovely Suite.' Misato happily filled up PenPen's dish and placed a can of beer next to it. "You too, PenPen!"

Both reluctantly exited their quarters and made their way to their doom. Rei sat down next to Misato and glanced at her malignant meal, then turned to PenPen who seemed to have done the same thing and was now staring at her. Both stared at each other, refusing to blink in this serious contest of who would take the first/last bite.

Misato's ignorance that afternoon was truly a blessing as the silent war was exchanged before her livingroom table. She happily slopped an extra helping of curry into her microwaved noodles and took a heavy swig of her seventh beer.

It was obvious the staring contest was not going to go anywhere. The warm-water penguin seemed to have more willpower than what Rei had expected of him. PenPen was thinking the exact same thing. Never had he met such a worthy opponent besides Asuka. Not evenShinji was a match against him.

Both stared each other down with everything they had. And finally, Rei saw it; _Sweat..._ Yes, PenPen was losing his resolve against the First Child. It would only be a matter of seconds before-

PenPen blinked. Silence hung in the air as realization slowly sunk in. His eyes widened in horror as he threw a fit of arguing squawking sounds. Catching a glimpse of Rei still staring at him, he quickly shut up.

Feeling a sense of being bored into, PenPen hung his head, bowed down a bit, inhaled the miasma that was rising from his still-steaming meal...and paused. A quick look at Rei still staring forced him to continue. Deciding not to place the grotesque noodles in his beak, he let his tongue slide out the side and placed the tip on top of the curry.

Rei finally blinked, she watched with amazement as PenPen straightened up and made a mad dash to the toilet. Rei instantly stood up as well. The sudden movements nearly gave Misato a heart attack. "Not hungry?" she asked with a cheek-full of noodle curry.

"I just remembered; I have important business to attend to at NERV after school. Pardon me."

Misato shrugged as the young girl put her shoes on and walked out the door. "More for me, then." She said gulping down her noodles. "Saturdays' _sure_ are great!" she smiled goofily as she pulled Rei's dish in front of her and began chowing down.

-------

"How are the repairs coming along?"

Ritsuko sighed. _I _really _need an aspirin_, she thought, fighting the urge to rub her temples in front of the Commander. She had been working nonstop since after the battle and hardly had a decent day's rest. "We've managed to reattach the left arm and rejuvenated some of the missing torso however; the regeneration of the right arm is still under process."

"How much more time is needed for the repairs to be complete?"

"The damage done to the right side of the chestcavity is extensive. It's hard to believe the entry plug didn't explode due to the intense heat and pressure inside." The Doctor knew she was starting to trail off topic. She could feel the air around Gendo grow cold. "I'll need another three days. We finally managed to repair most of the torso."

"Make it one day."

_WHAT!_ Ritsuko screamed in her head. "But, _sir._ The regeneration process takes time. Had _both_ limbs been torn off, yes the repairs would be done by n-"

"I did _not_ ask for your comments on the subject, Doctor." he replied so harshly Ritsuko winced.

Ritsuko knew well what the result would be when the Commander used a harsh tone that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. "I can't guarantee that the repairs will be done by then, sir."

"Then do what you can to finish as soon as possible."

"Yes, sir."

Stepping out of the cold office, Ritsuko let out a long sigh and rubbed her temples. "_Another_ all-nighter." she mumbled. Pulling out her cell phone, she asked Maya to start making a strong brew. "God, these hours are going to kill me."

* * *

So, how was that? Good? Bad? Still confusing? (You'll have to bear the latter of the three for a while.) Please review! 


	4. Bittersweet Victory

Author's notes: I don't own Evangelion blah, blah, blah.

**

* * *

**

**Sunday**

"We—want—McDon—alds! We—want—McDon—alds! We—want—McDon—alds! We—want—McDon—alds! We—want-"

"_Alright_, already!" Hikari shouted. She was seriously thinking of killing Kodama when she got home from walking Max. _Why not take them to McDonalds_; she mentally quoted sardonically from her single pig-tailed sibling. "Brush your teeth and get dressed, you two. You have twenty minutes." Both little girls ran off to Nozomi's room. She sighed and fell onto the livingroom couch thinking that having freckles was a cursed mark.

Now that the thought about it; Hikari found it strange that she was the only one in the family who had freckles. Other than her mother, that is. She missed the days when the entire family went on picnics at a nearby park. Her mother would always pack everyone's favorite meals. She, Kodoma, and her mother would run around the park playing tag while their father stayed behind to keep watch over Nozomi. Smiling at the memory, it was hard to believe so much had changed since their mother had left them.

Glancing at the clock on her livingroom wall, Hikari was surprised to see 30 minutes had already gone by! "I'm leaving without you two!" she called out while grabbing her shoes.

"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Mari and Nozomi pleaded separately as they dashed into the livingroom. Mari was wearing a white shirt with blue overalls while Nozomi wore pink shorts and a white and pink horizontally striped shirt.

Hikari was wearing the same type of shirt but it was black and white, and a yellow dress that stopped just above the knee with overall-like shoulder straps. She considered this to be her most comfortable casual ware. "Hurry up and put your shoes on! We don't have much time before breakfast is over!"

-------

Roaming his eyes around the refrigerator's contents, Shinji shut the door—he couldn't eat. The nervousness had his stomach in knots and would most likely disagree with anything it would try to digest. He thought sleep might help but he was restless. Not to mention the fact that the loud noise from the demolition crew had the opposite affect of lulling him to sleep. _This is worse than having a life-threatening operation appointment pinballing around the calendar_, he thought as he eyed the fridge, then the bed, then back to the fridge again.

In a way, he wished the attack would already happen so he could get it over and done with. But then again, he also wished it would be delayed for a few more days until Unit 01's repairs were complete. Chances of survival would dramatically increase with that.

Today marked exactly two weeks after the Third's attacked. It would most likely happen tomorrow seeing as he recalled that he was attending school at that time. The bruise he got that day reminded him of that.

"I really should get a TV..." he murmured as he unconsciously rubbed his jaw, wanting more than anything to grab his attention until sleep overtook him.

Not having anything else to do, he decided to step out again. _Maybe I'll hit the arcade_, he thought before his stomach twisted more at the thought of the flashing lights, loud noises and nauseous 3D turns. "...Maybe not."

-------

Inside the monorail headed to the closest stop to Fujino, Japan, Toji lay sprawled on the seats; sleeping, while Kensuke was on his knees, busy doodling over Toji's face with a black washable marker. A few of the elderly were shaking their heads with disapproval while others chuckled as they reminisced their golden years when they were young, mischievous, and full of life.

Kensuke paused; frozen at Toji's sudden movements. Toji scratched just above the cheek where the felt last made contact with flesh, grunted and went back to sleep, letting Kensuke breath out a sigh of relief and continue his work of art. The tip of his tongue pressed tightly against the corner of his mouth as he carefully moved to the eyelids, Kensuke drew a pupil on one and a smiley face on the other.

Capping his marker, he folded his arms in front of him and stepped back to admire his masterpiece with a nod.

-------

"Good morning, Shinji."

Shinji turned around dumbly to see the Class Rep and two little girls walking alongside with her. "Oh, hi, Hikari."

"Are you going to get breakfast, too?"

His stomach churned disapprovingly, "Uh, n-"

"Who's he?" Mari interrupted.

"Don't be rude; Mari or I won't pay for your hotcakes." Hikari lectured. "Sorry 'bout that. She gets it from her brother." she told him smiling.

Shinji smiled back. "That's alright." He knelt down until he was face-to-face with the little girl. _Huh, this is the first time I'm meeting her_, he realized. He was glad that she appeared uninjured. A kind smile crossed his face as he patted the little girl's jet-black, shoulder length hair, "So you're Toji's little sister, huh? It's really nice to meet you."

A small blush crept across the girl's face as she ran and hid behind Hikari. Mari wondered how this strange boy knew about her as she poked her head out from around Hikari's dress. "…Yeah...h—hi."

There was a moment of silence before Nozomi started laughing at her friend's unexpected behavior. Normally, Mari would greet everyone like she would her brother; loud and casual. So it was funny to see her friend remain quiet after someone greets themselves. A sharp glare from Mari made Nozomi try and stifle her laughter but that only made it come out in spontaneous bursts of snorts through her nose.

"And you must be Nozomi. Hikari's told me a bit about you."

"Yup!" she nodded. "Did she say anything good things about me?"

"Uh, most of it was." Shinji grinned.

Hikari glanced at her watch and nearly freaked, "C'mon! We're about to miss breakfast!"

At the mention of the morning meal, Shinji's stomach gave out a horrible grumble of objection, forcing Shinji to keel over and let out a low moan. "Huh?" he asked the slim shadow looming before him. Looking up, he saw that Hikari's hand extended towards him. He graciously took it and was helped back to his feet. "Than-" he nearly bit his tongue as Hikari pulled hard and ran to catch up to the girls.

"Hurry up, Shinji!" she grunted, pulling his arm to get him to run on his own. "Lunch is going to start soon!"

"But I-" he started. "-Oh, what the hell." he muttered and broke into a run.

-------

Rei watched as Misato poured a side-serving of last nights leftover curry next to her burnt toast with slight abhorrence. She had felt this sensation of loss before and inwardly frowned at her so called "breakfast." Taking a butter knife, she scrapped some of the layers of burnt wheat off her toast.

"Well, I'll be home late, Rei. So don't wait up." Misato announced while putting on her favorite red jacket. "Oh, I left out a can on the counter for PenPen. Be sure to feed him when it thaws." She grabbed her keys from the table and made her way to her shoes. "Why don't you go see a movie or something? It's not healthy stay inside all day. Well, later!" she waved before heading out the door.

Rei had no intent on going anywhere. She went to her room to lie on the bed for a while. About an hour later, she came out and grabbed the can from the counter. Turning it to read the label, she pulled out the can opener from a drawer and poured the now-thawed jalapeños onto PenPen's dish. As to why Misato froze a can of jalapeños and placed it on the counter to thaw to feed the warm-water penguin was beyond Rei's understanding.

Ten minutes passed by and PenPen walked into Rei's room—only to kick her in the shin for his crappy meal.

-------

Nozomi and Mari had thrown a hissy fit until Shinji had agreed to pay for ice cream after their "breakfast." Their little introduction with the boy just made them late for the breakfast menu and they were forced to order lunch instead.

Hikari had already ordered her meal and two Happy Meals and was standing behind Shinji in case he needed a little money to pay for his and the ice cream.

He scanned the menu above the cashier and decided to get something small that might settle in his stomach. He saw that he could have an order of six, nine or twelve Chicken McNuggets. "I'll have half a dozen nuggets and two small-"

"Large!" came two shouts from the tables.

Shinji sighed and pulled out his wallet to see if he had enough. "Two large ice creams."

"We don't have half a dozen nuggets." said the pimply teenager behind the counter.

Shinji blinked in confusion. "You don't?"

"We only have six, nine, or twelve," was the reply.

"Wait—" he began "So I can't order _half a dozen_ nuggets, but I can order _six_?"

"That's right."

Behind him, Shinji noticed Hikari was having difficulty keeping her face straight. It almost looked like she had been sucking on a lemon. He shook his head and decided to order the six McNuggets.

Once they reached their table, Hikari snickered at what had just happened at the counter. "They'll hire anybody these days!" she tried to whisper as her face was turning red. Shinji couldn't help but chuckle alongside. It was a crude joke, but it still kinda made him laugh. Nozomi and Mari wondered what was so funny that they missed out on.

"Shinji Ikari?"

Shinji instinctively turned his head to see who had called him. "Yes?" he asked a short-haired brunette.

"I _told_ you it was him." Maya said to the other two bridge bunnies behind her. "How're you feeling, Shinji?" she asked turning back to the young boy.

"Um..." He never expected to see _them_ anywhere but at NERV. _That's a stupid thought; they don't live there_, Shinji criticized.

"Oh! We didn't get a chance to introduce ourselves before you were-" she glanced at the table's other occupants before continuing, "-sent off."

"Uh...huh…?" Shinji nodded dumbly.

"I'm Maya Ibuki." she formally bowed to him, then gestured to the man standing to her left, "This is Makoto Hyuga and Shigeru Aoba." she gestured to the other man to her right.

The man with the glasses bowed as well while other just held up his hand as if saying 'Yo'.

"Oh. Um...hi." he timidly replied. _I'm pretty sure the damages to Unit 01 weren't completely repaired, so why are they in casual clothes?_ "Are you guys going to a casual meeting or something?" he asked.

"No, actually, we're headed home. We just decided to get something on the way."

"The food court's closed today." Makoto said adjusting his glasses to the bridge of his nose. "The three of us normally eat out on Sundays after work."

"So you guys just got out of work?" Shinji asked, surprised that they had been working so late last night to be getting out this early.

"Yeah, but it's not so bad. The hours are better than the Science department."

"What's going on with Ritsuko?"

All three techs stared at the boy. They found it strange that he had addressed someone he just met by their first name. Shigeru was the first to reply. "They've been practically working triple-shift to complete the repairs."

Shinji's pulse quickened. "And...how are the repairs going?" he uneasily asked.

"They've managed to get a little over 91 repaired but I think they're looking, at most, three more days of triple-shifts to finish."

"Are you guys talking about the giant robot?" Hikari asked. The silence slowly filled the restaurant like water filling a cup.

Everyone who was interested in the topic of the giant robot was closely watching them with perked ears. Those who didn't know why everything had gone quiet turned to the direction that everyone else was looking at to find out what was going on.

Mari was the first to break the silence, "Giant robot?"

"Order #254!" called out the cashier. The three bridge bunnies let out a sigh of relief at the broken silence.

"Um, excuse me, is our order ready?" Hikari asked after reading the order number on her receipt. Behind her, the sound of people chatting had already begun to slowly increase back to its normal volume.

"What number?" he sighed dully.

_Not very customer friendly_, Hikari thought. "It's #252." she replied.

He typed in a few keys on the register. "It's not ready yet."

"But we've been waiting almost _ten minutes_ already. Why did they get their order first?" Hikari asked the cashier whose only reply was a shrug and an I-don't-know grunt.

"Well, good seeing you again, Shinji." Shigeru gave a slight wave at the boy before digging into his pockets for the keys and tossing them to Makoto after grabbing their meals. "You're driving." he ordered.

"_You_ drove here, why don't _you_ drive?" he retorted, carrying the drinks.

"Because I don't feel like driving, right now." he shrugged.

"Oh, right, and strumming your invisible guitar has nothing to do with it?"

"I'm practicing! At least I'm doing something more practical than giggling at little cartoons."

"Hey, you have your little thing and I have my own."

"Then leave my little thing alone!"

"You brought it up in the first place!" The argument between the two followed them out the double-doors.

Maya sighed at the two. She bowed apologetically to the children, "E—excuse us." and followed her fellow First Lieutenants, leaving several people giggling in their wake.

Nearly five minutes later, they finally got their orders. Some of the customers in the restaurant were apparently talking about the rumors of the giant robot. Shinji tried his best to avoid eye-contact with anyone.

The last thing he wanted was for someone to walk up to him and ask questions regarding the attack. He was pretty sure Hikari had put two and two together by now, however, whether she did or didn't, he was grateful that she didn't ask questions related to it. Instead she reminisced about a similar experience with lack of customer service she had with the local Wal-Mart employee.

"So, I was checking out a few items, and the lady behind me put her things on the belt close to mine. I picked up one of those dividers that they keep by the cash register and placed it between our things so they wouldn't get all mixed up. After she scanned all of my things, she picked up the divider and looked it all over for the bar code so she could _scan_ it." she paused to let everyone laugh. Once the laughter died down, she continued, "Well, she couldn't find the bar code so she said to me, 'Do you know how much this is?' and I said to her, 'I've changed my mind, I don't think I'll buy that today.' She said 'Okay,' and I paid her for the things and left! She had _no_ clue what had just happened!"

_It must've slipped her mind or something..._ Shinji thought to himself while wiping away a tear after laughing at Hikari's ordeal. The amusing story had helped a lot in easing his tension. Shinji's stomach wasn't in knots anymore, it was in pain of trying to breath but still, he felt a little more comfortable and he was able to keep his McNuggets down. After everyone had settled down, he calmly listened to the girls talk — well, only Nozomi and Hikari were talking, Mari was busy having a staring contest with her wrapper while she ate. Her face seemed strangely flushed for some reason. "Are you okay, Mari?" The girl reddened a bit more but replied with a nod as she sank into her seat, hiding half her face under the table.

They talked about other things, like, their grades in school, the new movies that were coming out soon, even rumors that the most boring and dull teacher in their grade would be filling in for other teachers that had either evacuated or transferred to other schools. By the time they said their goodbyes, it was almost two in the afternoon.

-------

"What took you three so long?" Kodama asked while sitting on the front porch scratching behind the ear of their black Bullmastiff. "Did you have fun?"

"It was nice. I met a classmate of mine on the way there." Hikari replied.

"Oh, _really_? So, was it _Toji_?" she asked coquetry.

"Stop it. Toji and I are just childhood friends." Hikari stated with a slight blush at calling him by his first name in a long time.

"Sure you are." she said skeptically.

"I'm serious."

Kodoma leaned back and lay on the wooden floorboards, "Uh-huh."

"It _wasn't_ Toji, it was the new kid!"

"Ah-h-h-h-h. New kid, eh?" she instantly sat back up, "So this new kid; is he cute?" she added mischievously.

Hikari's blushing face turned a shade darker but she turned away to hide it from her sister. "Kodama! You shouldn't ask questions like that! Besides, he's three years younger than you."

"Well? Is he?" she pushed.

"I'm not going to answer that." she huffed, nose pointed upward as she made her way inside. She loved doing that in front of her sister; it always seemed to set her off a bit.

"Hey, I only wanted to know!" Once out of earshot, Kodama turned to her two little snitchers and skillfully flicked them each ¥200. "So," she knelt down to whisper to them in case Hikari was still within earshot, "is he cute?"

"Mari's face turned red and she ran behind Hikari." Nozomi answered pointing at her best friend.

Kodoma turned to the said girl, "_Really?_" she asked with a grin that would rival the Cheshire Cat.

"I—I did not!" Mari shouted to Nozomi with a slight flush of embarrassment.

"Yeah, you did!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yuh-huh!"

"_Nuh-uh_!"

"_Yuh-huh_!"

"Shut-up!"

"Make me!"

"I mean it!"

"Well, I don't care!"

Kodoma marveled at how alike they were to Toji and Kensuke when they were young. She eventually got bored after three minutes of watching the two of them chase each other around the yard in their supposed game of cat and mouse and went inside to watch some TV.

-------

"Whew!" Toji wiped the sweat off his brow. "You really put up more than usual this time, Kensuke."

Kensuke was lying on the soft grass, his body spread-eagle. His arms were covered in bruises from trying to block Toji's punches and the sweat falling from the bridge of his nose was stinging his eyes. _Maybe this wasn't such a good idea_, Kensuke thought as he began to regret having taped their spar to show their fellow Stooge. His arms and shoulders ached badly and he couldn't even lift himself off the ground.

Toji walked to the large duffel bag sitting near a tree. He pulled out two bottles of water and tossed one at Kensuke's chest. With heavy, throbbing arms, the mousy boy grabbed the bottle and began guzzling its contents down like a dehydrated man in the middle of the desert. "Slow down, man, or you're gonna-"

Kensuke's eyes bulged and he quickly sat up, coughing some of the water out of his lungs. Toji rushed over and began patting his back. "I'm okay." he wheezed.

Toji walked back to the bag, reached in and pulled out a white towel to wiping the sweat off his face. When he pulled the towel back, he noticed the black marks that now stained against the white fabric. "Hey, is there something on my face?" he asked his labored-breathing friend.

-------

Sleep didn't come easy for Shinji. He tossed and turned, trying to get in a comfortable position that would relieve him of the temporary insomnia. He didn't feel very good—in fact, he felt like he was going to throw up. His mind was unable to produce a single coherent thought. Every time he tried to clear his mind, Unit 01 seemed to flash into his mind and give him a demonic smirk.

**Monday**

By the time Shinji's eyes began to droop; allowing him to enter the blissful siesta, a beam of light had crawled down the heavily cracked wall behind him and seemed to have stopped directly over his eyelids—as if God were toying around with the young boy's life. Shinji muttered and rolled over—and landed hard on the cold floor.

He was thankful to have managed to tidy up the apartment last week. The only spot that wasn't clean was a tiny space around the old fridge—he didn't want to aggravate whatever was inside. He wearily got up and shuffled his feet to the bathroom to, at least, try and get ready for the day.

-------

Lunch was nearly over and Kensuke had been glaring at Toji the entire day. He had been rubbing the bumps on the back of his head all through class and lunch. Most of the bruises that had covered his body had already faded to the point where they were nearly indistinguishable. "You didn't have to clobber me, you know."

Toji crossed his arms in spite, "Yeah, well you didn't have to write all over my face."

"It was a _washable_ marker! Nothing to throw a tantrum about!"

"Yeah it is." He said stubbornly.

"It was only a joke. You really need to lighten up, man." the mousy boy suggested as he sat on one of the desks. "One day we'll look back at this and laugh."

"Here's something funny for you; why not take that marker and shove it up your-" Toji's sentence was cut off by the wailing alarms.

"Yes!" Kensuke shouted and hopped off the desk. He ran to his desk, grabbed his camera and ran out the door. "This is gonna be _so_ cool!"

Toji shook his head. "Hopeless." he muttered. He was about to leave the classroom until he heard a soft snore from behind. Turning around, he saw a slumped figure with his arms around his head, lightly snoring. He walked up to the sleeping figure and shook him awake, "Hey, man. Wake up." Getting no response, he shook him a bit harder.

"Ugh, five more minutes." Shinji groggily lifted his head and scanned his surroundings, forgetting that he was in still in class.

Toji couldn't help but feel sorry for his friend. "Hey, it's time." Shinji lowered his head back into his arms wishing what he had heard was just a bad dream.

Toji waited patiently as Shinji hesitantly decided to get up from his seat and head out to NERV. He decided to grab Shinji's stuff and take it to him later. Before he unplugged the laptop, he read the blinking message on the screen, _Is it true that you're the pilot of that robot? Y/N_ "Robot." he scoffed. _Those things are anything but robots._ He wondered who started the rumor, though...

By the time he reached the school entrance doors, he saw Shinji being guided by Section Two agents to a black van. "Good luck, man!" he called out to Shinji's retreating back.

Without turning around, Shinji lifted a tired arm to let Toji know he heard him.

-------

_Standby…_ He hate being on standby. Even though being on standby was rare, he couldn't help but loath the feeling of uselessness.

Unit 01's repairs were almost completed, save for half a missing limb. All he could do now was sit tight and wait. If things got too hectic he'd be launched to help out. _This is the second time Rei wasn't positioned as backup._ He hoped she'd be alright on her own.

Shinji nervously clenched and unclenched his right hand. It was the strangest sensation of phantom limb he had ever experienced. He couldn't feel his lower arm even though it was still attached to his body. If he wasn't running on adrenalin trying to save everyone against the 14th he surely would've noticed a similar sensation.

"Shinji, pay attention!" Misato shouted.

"Huh?"

"We can't have you zoning out on us!"

"S—sorry."

"Sorry's not gonna cut it. Now listen up and listen well. Unit 01's repairs still aren't complete so you'll be backup. In the case that Rei's in trouble, I want you to take some heat off of her. While the Angel has your attention, the MAGI will analyze the data to find a way to beat it. That's where Rei comes in."

Shinji nodded. "Uh-huh..."

"While you have the Angel's full attention, we'll feed Rei the information needed to take it down before it causes any serious damage. Got that?"

"Yes, ma'am."

-------

"I think now's a good time."

Toji gave a side glance at his friend before untying the sneakers from behind his neck and put them on. "Let's do this." They got up and headed straight to the Class Rep. "Hey, Class Rep!"

Hikari turned away from her friend, Maki Tanaka—a girl with shoulder-length hair and a hairclip on the left side of her bangs—to give the duo an annoyed look. Maki copied her friend's response. "_Now what_?"

"We both gotta go to the bathroom."

Both girls gave them a disgusted look before Hikari let out a sigh equal to their facial expression, "You were supposed to do that _before_ you came here."

"Yeah, well, it slipped my mind. So, can we go or should we run off to a corner and let loose?"

"Fine, but make it quick."

"Run to a corner?" he joked.

"_No_, you sicko!" Maki shot. "She means the restrooms!"

"I was joking." Toji irritably called back before he and Kensuke left Underground Shelter 334. About halfway down the corridors, Toji made a sharp left turn.

"Where're you going?" Kensuke asked

"Dude, I really gotta go."

Kensuke sweatdropped, shrugged and followed him. "May as well." he said recollecting the fact that if his bladder wasn't empty the last time he would surely have wet himself.

-------

Inside Unit 01, Shinji had been trying to get a hold of Rei but it seemed like all communications between them had been cut off. So he chose to get a carrier for his message. "Um, Misato? I can't seem to contact Rei."

"We'll look into that."

"On it!" Shinji heard Aoba in the background.

"Misato, could you tell her..." he paused to think of the right words to say that won't give anything away.

"Yeah?"

"Tell her...to be careful."

Misato found this rather odd. Throughout her stay in Japan, she had _never_ seen or heard of anyone being worried about the enigmatic First Child, save for the Commander from the stories she's heard, and now her. Not to mention the reports she received from Section Two about Rei's distance to him. The girl never seemed to show any interest in anyone. Misato decided to pass it off as a coworker thing. "Alright, I'll tell her."

-------

"You think he'll win?"

Toji had to hold back from whacking his friend upside the head. "Of _course_ he will! He beat that thing once, he can do it again." he said shaking off and making his way to wash his hands.

Kensuke followed, "Yeah, but they're stronger than before. You saw that last one pull that trick out of its sleeve. What if he loses?"

"Don't think that way! Besides, out of all the Pilots in NERV, Shinji's killed the most single handedly. He can handle it."

Kensuke began drying his hands. "I sure hope you're right."

"Don't forget, he's got Ayanami to back him up. There's no way they can lose."

"Ayanami's been isolating herself since we got back. What's up with that?" Kensuke wondered while heading out the bathroom door.

"Dunno, but I hope they get along soon."

"And if they don't?"

Toji raised a threatening fist in front of him, "Then I'll make 'em!"

Kensuke highly doubted he could take on, let alone beat, Ayanami. Shinji, yeah, but Ayanami was just as powerful as Kaworu, if not more. After opening the thick steel door, both boys made their way up the steps to the same shrine they once stood long ago.

-------

"Rei?"

"Yes?"

"Communications between Unit 00 and Unit 01 are down; we'll have them repaired soon, okay?"

"Yes."

"Oh! And _Shinji_ says to be careful." Misato winked at her through the screen. Misato thought along the lines of 'no fun' when Rei didn't respond. "Are you ready?" she asked seriously.

"Yes."

"First neutralize the enemy's AT Field, and then fire a volley. Do it just like we practiced. Can you handle that?" Ritsuko asked.

"Yes."

_Be careful, Rei._ Misato thought. "Launch Eva!"

-------

"Which building was it, again?" Toji asked while watching the 4th Angel stand upright. At that moment, EVA-LIFT D-22 let out a loud bang that rang over Tokyo-3. "Never mind. What the hell?!" Behind its massive doors revealed the orange Unit 00. Toji roughly grabbed Kensuke's collar, "Why'd they send Ayanami?!"

"Don't take it out on me! Unit 01's probably not completely repaired." Kensuke replied trying to align his camera to the battle.

Toji let go of the mousy boy and crossed his arms, "She better not blow us up! I plan on keeping my body in one piece this time."

-------

They had positioned her in front of the target, hiding within the lift building. Unit 00 expanded its AT Field to its maximum. Rei tightened the Eva's hold on the rifle as she prepared for battle. Misato came on the comm. "Do it just like we planned, you can do this, Rei."

Unit 00 jumped out of the corner and began shooting a volley at the 4th Angel.

Before anyone could blink, the 4th Angel went horizontal, ducking under the bullets that would have hit its AT Field, slithered around the buildings towards Unit 00 like a snake after its prey. Rei jumped back, expecting the Angel to go for a frontal assault.

"Rei, no!" Misato screamed out a warning but Rei slammed against something hard behind her. Unit 00 was about to lean forward, leveraging itself to jump away but the Angel was already in its upright position. With its insect-like legs, it reached around and dug deep into the armor plating of Unit 00's torso, ensnaring it like a Venus flytrap.

Feeling the sharp legs trying to pull apart the orange armor like the lid from a can of sardines, Rei cried out in pain. Her sync rate was well over 60 and the armor plating that protected Unit 00 was attached to the restraints bolted deep into its flesh and bone of the Prototype Evangelion.

-------

Waiting on the 8th catapult, Shinji had been watching the entire encounter within the safety of his Unit 01 and he couldn't take anymore. "Misato! Send me out! Let me fight!"

"Not yet." she calmly said. "Unit 01 isn't 100 repaired. Rei can still get out of this."

"Damn." Shinji seethed under his breath, fruitlessly willing the catapult to launch or to, at least, release the safety locks.

-------

With its arms pinned and the Angel making an effort at tearing open Unit 00's chest plate armor, Rei resolved to kicking her way out and began beating the Angel's abdomen with Unit 00's heels to free herself.

In her panicked state, she didn't pay attention to the horrible ripping sound matching that of a wet rag, nor did she pay attention to the sickly wet legs that had formed on the Angels lower section. What got her attention was the fact that she could no longer kick her way free. Unit 00's legs were bound tightly just like the rest of its body

-------

"Shit! Rei, hold on! We're sending in Unit 01! Launch Eva!" Mere milliseconds before the launch, a loud metallic clank sounded and the Locks Monitor began blinking a dangerous red around the diagram of Unit 01's shoulders. "What the hell just happened?!"

"Unit 01's Final Safety Locks! They've just been released! We can't get them linked again!" shouted Makoto.

"How did they unlock in the _first_ place?!" Ritsuko shouted back.

"I don't know! Nothing here explains how it happened!"

-------

Seeing the situation that all of mankind was currently in, Toji turned to head back to the shelter. "Screw you, Kensuke, I'm outta here!"

"Wait! Look!"

-------

Shinji shot out of the streets like a circus performer out of a canon. He hadn't expected them to release the safety locks but experience taught him to turn his body in the air and use his AT Field to maneuver Unit 01's foot towards the Angel.

The 4th quickly lashed out with its tentacles, wrapped it around Unit 01's ankle and proceed in violently swinging him around in circles, bashing its body against steel buildings and concrete streets.

Shinji tried to get Unit 01 to reach down and release itself from the Angel's hold, but the g-force was keeping him from doing so.

"Shinji, use the progressive knife!"

He did as Misato had instructed, Unit 01 reached up and grabbed its prog knife from the left shoulder wing. The 4th remembered this type of weapon and reacted hostilely sending a strong electrical current through its tentacles while slamming it harder against solid objects. Upon being slammed to the ground again, Shinji barely had a chance to carefully aim and throw the knife through mid-flight, severing the tentacle that had held him from saving Rei and Unit 00.

He fell onto Weapon Building 0-08 and slumped to the ground. "The core...where...?" he breathed before grunting at the stinging sensation running through his ankle. He looked down to see that the severed tentacle was still alive and moving on its own like the end of a lizard's tail.

"Shinji, are you okay? Say something!" Misato shouted. He reached down and undid the tentacle from his ankle and examined it in deep thought. "Shinji? Shinji!"

"I'm fine, let me think!"

"There's no time for that! It looks like Rei's being held hostage, come ba-"

"I cant just-" Shinji shouted.

"I am your Head of Operations supervisor, follow my orders!"

"But Rei-"

"Do as I say, Shi-"

-------

Shigeru couldn't believe what he was seeing "Unit 01's communication link's just been cut off from the inside!"

"What?!" Misato shrieked. _Is it possible that he unlocked the Final Safety Locks, too?_ "Do what you can to get it back on!" Misato ordered.

-------

_Don't panic, don't panic… Think, Shinji, think!_ Almost instantly, an idea came to him. It was absurd and extremely risky but…

-------

"Unit 01's synchronization is climbing!" Maya reported. "89..._92_…_96_…_100_!"

_Impossible!_ Ritsuko thought. "Unbeleive-"

"104?! 107…108…_109_! Stabilizing at 109.46?! How's he _doing_ that?"

"The right arm! It's regenerating!" Makoto nearly shrieked in disbelief.

"Has it gone berserk?" Misato asked the Doctor.

-------

With a small portion of the right arm regenerated from the enemy's severed limb, Unit 01 charged at the Angel. Shamshel lashed out its energy whips at Unit 01 but the Eva narrowly dodged them, instead, the whips cleanly slicing several buildings to pieces. The buildings fell to the ground, enveloping all three giants in a cloud of dust and debris.

Before the thick dust had cleared, Shamshel sensed a threat coming and blindly lashed out in hopes to hit the target. Unit 01 exploded out of the thick dark clouds, right arm reared back, ready to strike at both hostage and enemy if need be.

Like a psychic connection between them, Rei tilted Unit 00's head just in time to dodge the stump. The Angel made no sound of pain, but judging from its twitching body, Rei was sure it must've been unbearable. She watched as Unit 01 had begun contaminating the Angel. No. Not just contaminating it—it was _absorbing_ the Angel's flesh into its own!

Shamshel had played around enough, the bottom half of its abnormally large head open and then been vertically split in half as if an invisible knife had deeply slit a "T" into it, and aimed directly at Unit 01. Rei felt a grumble behind her and knew what came next. She restored communications with Unit 01 to warn him but he had his closed from not only HQ, but herself as well. "Shinji!"

She closed her eyes but the hot atmosphere from the energy blast above her had already informed her of what had happened. When she opened her eyes seconds later, Unit 01 was buried under the large rubble of several buildings that had collapsed.

-------

For a fraction of a moment, the sensors displayed a sharp spike in the readings, and then everything calmed down. "Unit 01's Pilot is unconscious." Maya breathed.

While everyone had been stunned to silence, Misato torn her eyes off of Unit 01 and saw something different about the Angel body. Something she wasn't able to see before. "Rei, behind you!"

-------

Rei craned Unit 00's neck to what was behind her head and her eyes widened in surprise. The core had been exposed due to Unit 01's absorption! She leaned forward as much as she could and slammed the back of her head against the giant red orb. The Angel twitched from the contact at its freshly exposed organ and slightly released its hold.

Unit 00 leaned forward again, managing to get more distance, and slammed hard against the core again. The Angel completely released its hold and staggered back. In one swift movement, Unit 00 bent down, grabbed Unit 01's prog knife, and thrust it at the core.

Shamshel's legs reached out to grab Unit 00's arm but Rei pulled back before it had the chance to capture her again—leaving the prog knife sticking out like a large thorn sticking out of an apple. She grabbed her rifle off the ground, spun around in place and butted the knife as hard as she could. The knife penetrated through the core and the blunt side of the rifle hit, managing to severely crack the core to the point where it glowed for a brief second before exploding and vaporizing the Angel and a small chunk of the city with it.

-------

Aoba was the first to break the silence, "The target has gone completely silent." That single sentence had almost everyone releasing their held breath—well, _almost_ everyone…

"Send out the Recovery team. Inform me when the Third Child begins to regain consciousness." With that, Misato left the bridge with a scowl on her face, leaving some of the techs worried for the boy.

* * *

I'd like to give a big thanks to Rahhel for beta-reading this chapter.

More beta-readers wanted.


End file.
